T20 World Cup | The PowerPlays made the difference, says New Zealand skipper Santner

Mitchell Santner, the New Zealand captain, admitted that the PowerPlay overs in both the essays proved decisive during his team’s annihilation by India in the ICC T20 World Cup final in Ahmedabad on Sunday (March 8, 2026).

“I think the tale of the day was the two PowerPlays. They were 90 for none (92 without loss) and we were three for 40 (52 for three),” Santner said. “When you come up against a very good team in a final, you always want to do well. We obviously know that we weren’t at our best. If you aren’t at your best against a very good team, you are going to be exposed, and that’s what happened tonight (Sunday),” the skipper added.

While India openers Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma took their time to get going – scoring just 12 off the first two overs before going berserk to add 80 more in the next four overs – New Zealand contributed handsomely to the host’s cause by bowling wide of the stumps way too early in the innings.

“Credit to Sanju and Abhishek at the top to get 90 (92) off the PowerPlay,” Santner said. “It’s pretty tough from there (to come back). It was a pretty good pitch throughout. There wasn’t much for the bowlers. The cutters weren’t really holding, there was not much spin. Either way you look at it, if we could have got a couple (of wickets) in the PowerPlay, squeezed them a little bit through the middle, 220 could have been chased down on a very good pitch”.