Ahmedabad, March 8 The Indian batting lineup presented such a delightful performance on Sunday that it was difficult to choose the best.
Sanju Samson dominated the New Zealand attack with a fearless 89; Abhishek Sharma rediscovered his lost touch with a destructive 52 off 21 balls, and reliable Ishan Kishan contributed a solid 54 in the T20 World Cup final here.
Put in to bat by the Black Caps, India's top three batsmen unleashed a powerful innings befitting the final.
Each of them played a near-flawless innings, and everything they touched turned into runs. The match seemed almost won in the powerplay when openers Samson and Sharma put together 92 for no loss in six overs, a T20 record for the first wicket.
By the halfway mark of the match, India was 127/1. By the time 15 overs were up, India was 203/1, and a huge score seemed inevitable.
By the time the 20th over was bowled, India had scored 255 runs, the highest in a T20 World Cup final.
Shivam Dube also contributed with an 8-ball 26, with three fours and two sixes.
There was a minor setback in the first ball of the 16th over when Samson was dismissed for 89, just as he had in the semi-final. In the same over, Kishan and captain Suryakumar Yadav also got out for ducks.
Samson's innings came in 46 balls, with eight sixes and five fours at a strike rate of nearly 194. Earlier, Sharma had also hit six sixes and three fours in his 21-ball innings.
Once Sharma departed -- after a 43-ball 98-run partnership with Samson -- Kishan came in. He and Samson put together a 105-run partnership in 48 balls.
Samson's hitting was so powerful that he was scoring a boundary every 3.5 balls. Three-quarters of the balls he faced were hit to the boundary, either along the ground or over the rope.
He hit sixes at will – to third man, long leg, square leg, cover, and straight down the pitch.
He didn't seem to care whether it was spin (three of his sixes were against Rachin Ravindran), or fast bowling (Lockie Ferguson was hit for three sixes), or medium pace (Matt Henry was hit twice over the rope).
The wicket-keeper batsman from Kerala, who had been struggling, has now secured his place in history with his last three knocks in the 2026 edition of the T20 World Cup.
His 97 against West Indies helped him recover in the Super Eight. His 89 against England confirmed his brilliance. His match-winning score against the Kiwis cemented his authority.
