T20 final: Samson in sublime form again as Abhishek gets his mojo back

The ICC T20 World Cup final 2026 could be remembered as the one when Sanju Samson carried on from where he had left off at Kolkata and Mumbai and Abhishek Sharma finally found his mojo back. A calculated assault by the two Indian openers set the tone of the match as they finished at a daunting total of  255 for five - the highest in a final ever - after being sent into bat by New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner.

It was not a cliché at all to say that the reigning champions actually toyed with the Kiwi attack, but the Black Caps have had a forgettable night so far at the cavernous Narendra Modi Stadium. If taking a call of bowling on a belter of a wicket with the prospects of dew looked presumptious, their normally disciplined bowling line-up looked like a bundle of nerves – especially seamers Matt Henry and Lockie Ferguson who kept on spraying all over in trying to land the wide yorkers.

No wonder, this allowed Abhishek to free his arms and he soon began to resemble the batter who was the nemesis of rival bowlers in the bilaterals over 2025 to earn the world No.1 batter’s ranking. He took his chances upfront with Jacob Duffy, the weak link among the pacers by picking him up over mid on and then mid wicket – and then came a trademark six over long off once it fell in his arc.

He reached his second fifty of the tournament after a long drought – but when it mattered the most and his 18-ball half century was the fastest in a World T20 knockout game. Incidentally, he bettered two of the most explosive innings seen in this tournament only – that of Finn Allen against South Africa and Jacob Bethell vs India in the semi-finals – both of whom took 19 deliveries.

A few days back, Sunil Gavaskar said of Samson: ‘’He’s batting on a different planet, you could say. It’s as if he’s seeing the ball as big as a planet. Everything is so clear to him, just like the full moon today.’’

The soft-spoken Malayali vindicated the legend’s praise and his sequence of his scores in the last three matches ever since he was brought back was 97 (versus West Indies); 89 (vs England in semi-finals) and again 89 in the final. The three-figure knock may not be of much consequence with a World Cup title at stake, but his exit surely robbed the Indian innings of some tempo towards the end before Shivam Dube gave it a final push towards the 250-mark.

The level of India’s domination could be gauged by the fact that their 92 without loss after powerplay equalled the World Cup record of West Indies. The Caribbeans had raced to 92 for one against Afghanistan in the previous edition in 2024.