{"id":138089,"date":"2026-03-07T05:26:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T10:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=138089"},"modified":"2026-03-07T05:26:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T10:56:34","slug":"new-zealand-wants-to-break-a-few-hearts-in-t20-world-cup-2026-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=138089","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand wants to \u2018break a few hearts\u2019 in T20 World Cup 2026 final"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Australia has the legacy. India has the recency. And New Zealand has the consistency.<\/p>\n

That is one way to sum up performances at ICC limited-overs World Cups in the last decade. Since 2015, Sunday will mark the fifth time New Zealand\u2019s men feature in the final of a global tournament\u2014a testament to their sustained excellence across formats.<\/p>\n

Yet captain Mitchell Santner knows that the team often dubbed the \u201cnicest guys\u201d in world cricket will have to break a billion hearts if they are to lift the Men\u2019s T20 World Cup trophy on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

For Santner, the choice is straightforward. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t mind winning a trophy,\u201d Santner said at a crowded media conference at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Saturday, on the eve of the final. \u201cYou look at this group and the groups that have been in the past, and we are pretty consistent in our thoughts. We try not to get ruled by the situation or the opponents. We just go out there and do our thing as a unit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been no different this time. Everyone knows we are probably not the favourites, but we don\u2019t mind that. If we do the little things well and put in a strong team performance, it can put us in a good position to hopefully lift the trophy. But yeah, I wouldn\u2019t mind breaking a few hearts to do that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ | T20 World Cup: With a population like ours, merely competing with India is fantastic, says Phillips<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

India, meanwhile, has been nearly invincible in ICC tournaments of late. In its last 30 matches across global events, the host has lost only twice\u2014the 2023 ODI World Cup final against Australia and the Super Eight clash against South Africa last month. Both defeats came at this very venue.<\/p>\n

Australia captain Pat Cummins, whose famous \u201csilence the crowd\u201d remark echoed through the stadium in 2023, believes handling the atmosphere will again be key.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess that\u2019s the goal\u2014to silence the crowd,\u201d Santner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of variables in T20 cricket. It\u2019s fickle at times. We\u2019ve seen throughout this World Cup that teams are very evenly matched. It often comes down to a few small moments that change the outcome,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Santner also pointed to the pressure on the host. \u201cThere is obviously a lot of pressure on India to win this World Cup at home. If we don\u2019t win, it would be pretty cool to win a home World Cup. That comes with added pressure, so we can go out there and try to put that pressure on them and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

For New Zealand, the final also carries recent context. The two sides met in a five-match T20I series in India just before the tournament\u2014a contest India dominated 4-1. Santner believes the lessons from that series have helped the Black Caps during the World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of planning and execution, it was a great series. We were challenged a lot of times,\u201d Santner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou build on what works and what doesn\u2019t and take that information forward. We obviously played on five pretty good surfaces around India. I\u2019m not sure what it\u2019s going to play like here, but I assure you it\u2019s going to be pretty good. Guys will take good conversations from that series into this game. But a World Cup final is a little bit different to a bilateral series,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Published on Mar 07, 2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Australia has the legacy. India has the recency. And New Zealand has the consistency. That is one way to sum up performances at ICC limited-overs World Cups in the last decade. Since 2015, Sunday will mark the fifth time New Zealand\u2019s men feature in the final of a global tournament\u2014a testament to their sustained excellence…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":138090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AFP__20260225__98XB26D__v1__MidRes__CricketIccMensT20Wc2026SriNzl.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgnRh4-zVf","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=138089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/138090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=138089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=138089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=138089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}