The New Zealand team, sent to bat first, scored 172 for four with the help of captain Kane Williamson’s 85 off 48 balls. In reply, the ‘players of the big matches’ Warner (53 runs in 38 balls) and Marsh gave the team victory for the loss of just two wickets with seven balls to spare.
New Zealand, which had unfortunately lost the final to England in the 50-over World Cup two years ago, once again had to be content with finishing runners-up in the ICC tournament. Marsh and Warner’s innings overshadowed Williamson’s batting.
Marsh hit six fours and four sixes in his innings, out of which Ish Sodhi hit two sixes. He responded to the criticism surrounding his selection in the T20 World Cup squad by playing the most memorable innings of his career so far.
At the same time, the notion of T20 cricket as a game of masters of the fast format was also shattered by Australia, which included five Test specialists, fast bowlers Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and batsmen Warner and Steve Smith in the team.
Warner, who was humiliated by an IPL team on this ground, played an important role in this victory. Warner’s captaincy was snatched in the IPL and he was not even given a place in the team in the last matches. He silenced the critics by playing memorable innings on the biggest stage in the T20 format itself.
At the same time, the New Zealand team, sent to bat first, was seen struggling to score runs in the first ten overs. Martin Guptill scored 28 runs in 35 balls.
After this Williamson changed the map of the innings by scoring 85 runs in 48 balls with the help of 10 fours and three sixes. New Zealand made 115 runs in the last ten overs to make the final match exciting.
Williamson, who often proved to be the troubleshooter of his team, batted beautifully, scoring 15 runs in the first 16 balls. At that time Adam Zampa was bowling economical and Guptill was not in form. Once the momentum was caught, Williamson played freely and scored 70 runs in the next 32 balls.
Williamson became the captain to score the highest score in the T20 World Cup final, beating Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara.
He eased the pressure by scoring 19 runs off Mitchell Starc in the 11th over. Josh Hazlewood also dropped his catch in the same over. Starc proved to be very expensive today, conceding 60 runs in four overs.
While Starc’s second over was poor, the third over was even worse in which New Zealand’s batsmen took 24 runs with four fours and a six. Hazlewood, on the other hand, took three wickets for 16 runs in four overs while Zampa took one for 24 in four overs.
New Zealand’s innings was named after Captain Williamson, who proved why he is considered one of the great batsmen of modern cricket. Playing with patience in every format with technical prowess is his specialty and most of all, he is always in form when needed.
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