New Zealand has made it to the final of T20 World Cup 2026. The team captained by Mitchell Santner unilaterally defeated the last World Cup runner-up South Africa by 9 wickets in the first semi-final and entered the World Cup final for the second time. In this match played at Eden Gardens, from bowling to batting, New Zealand completely destroyed South Africa. Finn Allen scored an unbeaten century in just 33 balls, which is the fastest century in T20 World Cup history. South Africa did not lose a single match in this T20 World Cup match but this team choked in the final.

New Zealand won on the strength of Finn Allen

The script of New Zealand's victory was written by openers Finn Allen and Tim Seifert. Both added 117 runs for the first wicket. Seifert played an innings of 58 runs in 33 balls. But Finn Allen scored a century in just 33 balls. Allen hit 8 sixes and 10 fours in this innings. The strike rate of this player was 303.03 which is a record. New Zealand achieved the target of 170 runs in just 12.5 overs. While chasing the target, New Zealand hit 10 sixes and 19 fours and defeated South Africa's strong bowling unit.

South Africa disappointed

March 4 was a bad date for South Africa. This team first lost the toss and after that the top 3 batsmen of South Africa also failed. Captain Markram was out after scoring 18 runs. De Kock scored 10 runs. Rickleton was out on the first ball. Dewald Brewis scored 34 runs and Marco Janson scored unbeaten 55 runs, somehow taking South Africa to 169 runs, but these runs proved to be too few for New Zealand.

Poor performance of South African bowlers

After South Africa's batsmen, its bowlers also crossed the limits of performing poorly. Marco Janson gave away 53 runs in 17 balls. Rabada gave 28 runs, Bosch gave 35 runs in 2 overs. Keshav Maharaj also gave 33 runs in 3 overs. Ngidi gave away 22 runs. New Zealand's openers Seifert and Allen together completely took them out of the game.