The Sports Buff ⚽️ ⚾️ 🏈

India defeated New Zealand by 96 runs to win their third T20 World Cup. Suryakumar Yadav’s who won the tournament 12 months earlier in their home World Cup, came into the tournament as favourites.

Teams such as England, New Zealand and South Africa seemed to be the main sides that would have been able to wrestle the title off the Indians.

The men in Blue, who are now the most successful team in World T20 history by winning the most World Cups (three), were just too good for everyone else.

In the Super 8’s, South Africa did emphatically beat them, but that only proved to be a wake-up call.

From that defeat, an inner-beast n team India awoke. Sky’s men hit scores of 200+ on the regular thereafter.

Shivam Dube would have been my Indian player of the tournament, but since Sanju Samson came in at the top of the list innings, it’s fair to say the wicket-keeper batsman has been head and shoulders above the rest.

The fearless hitting and swashbuckling approach forced some of the best bowlers in the T20 game to wilt.

They could see what was happening, but were powerless to stop it. As for the game itself, Samson (89 off 42) and Abhishek Sharma (52 off 21) got their side off to a rollicking start.

After 7.1 overs, India were 98-1. If The Kiwis thought that meant they’ve got a look back into this game, they couldn’t have been more wrong.

All of New Zealand’s key bowlers were taken to the cleaners. The usually very economical Mitch Santner even had to deal with some brutal boundary hitting.

All-rounder Santner leaked 33 runs in his four overs. There was actually a period where the visitors, New Zealand, had controlled the boundary hitting, but a nightmare final over from Jimmy Neesham, which cost 24 runs, which no doubt added more pressure to New Zealand’s chase.

In reply, the 2021 finalists slumped to 83-5, with both openers back in the pavilion. Captain Santner (43) was the only man to support Tim Sierfert’s half-century (52).

The Indian’s were too good. Chief tormentor was again Jasprit Bumrah. Their latest World Cup triumph and white-ball tournament win means they have won three World Cups (more than any other side) and three tournaments in a row.