Ahmedabad, March 8
Indian batter Abhishek Sharma could not have chosen a better time to roar back to form, as following a slump in the tournament, the left-hander chose the ICC T20 World Cup final to slam the fastest half-century in history of the T20 WC knockout stage.
Prior to the high-stakes final at Ahmedabad's Narendra Modi Stadium, Abhishek had failed to live up his world number one ranked billing except for a half-century against Zimbabwe in the Super Eights. Starting off the tournament with three successive ducks and a struggle with food poisoning, Abhishek could barely buy a run and swung out of desperation and hope.
However, in the title clash, Abhishek looked extremely brilliant against pacers, taking down Jacob Duffy for two fours, then Lockie Ferguson for a four and six in the fourth over. After a six over long-off against Matt Henry, he slammed Duffy for six fours and a six in the final of the powerplay, bringing up his half-century in 18 balls, with three fours and four sixes. He ended his knock at 21-ball 52 at a strike rate of 247.62.
He outdid Finn Allen's record of 19 balls fifty, which he made against South Africa in the semifinal at Kolkata recently. Abhishek ends the tournament with 141 runs in eight innings at an average of 17.62, with a strike rate of over 158, with two fifties.
Both he and Sanju Samson collected 92 runs in the powerplay without the loss of a wicket, making it the highest score in powerplay in T20 WC history.
Abhishek and Samson also handed pacer Lockie Ferguson a badge of absolute dishonour, smashing him for 24 runs, including a six and four each by the duo and three wides as well. He has joined Ben Stokes (during the West Indies in 2016) and Axar Patel (against South Africa in 2024) as the bowler with the most expensive over in the T20WC final.
Eight wides by NZ is the joint most by a Full Member side inside Powerplay.
4 overs taken by India also made it the fastest team fifty in a T20 World Cup semi-final or the final. The duo's 98-run stand was the first-ever half-century opening stand in men's T20 WC final history, with the previous high being the 48 runs between Kamran Akmal and Shahzaib Hasan against Sri Lanka at Lord's in 2009.
New Zealand have won the toss and opted to field against India in the final of the T20 World Cup 2026 in Ahmedabad on Sunday. Teams: India (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson(w), Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah. New Zealand (Playing XI): Tim Seifert(w), Finn Allen, Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Mitchell Santner(c), Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson, Jacob Duffy.
- ANI
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