New Zealand Captain Mitchell Santner Opens Up After Losing T20 World Cup Final

New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner said that his team was outplayed by India in the final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, while applauding the hosts for their dominant performance in front of a home crowd. Speaking during the post-match presentation ceremony, Santner said that New Zealand had fought hard throughout the tournament despite facing many challenges, but added that India were the better team in the final.

“Proud of the boys to make it this far. Obviously, we had some challenges throughout, but at each stage we put up a good fight. Today, we got outplayed by a great team in front of a great crowd. To see a big sea of blue, obviously India were home favourites,” Mitchell Santner said during the post-match presentation ceremony.

He also opened up on the challenges of playing a World Cup in front of home supporters, stating that while the pressure can be intense, the Indian team handled it well during the tournament as well.

“Playing a home World Cup comes with a lot of pressure” – Mitchell Santner

“Playing a home World Cup comes with a lot of pressure. But yeah, SKY (Suryakumar Yadav) and the boys should be very, very proud. Different guys stood up at different stages. In the Super Eight and semi-finals, we put up a good fight, but tonight we were obviously outplayed,” he further added.

As far as the match is concerned, New Zealand put India to bat first after winning the toss, Samson (89 in 46 balls, with five fours and eight sixes), Abhishek Sharma (52 in 21 balls, with six fours and three sixes), Ishan Kishan (54 in 25 balls, with four boundaries and four sixes) and Shivam Dube (26* in 8 balls, with three fours and two sixes) helped India post a massive total of 255/5.

While chasing, Tim Seifert (52 in 26 balls, with two fours and five sixes) tried with a fifty, but they couldn’t do well in front of Axar (3/27) and Bumrah (4/15) as Team India secure their third T20 World Cup title in style, becoming the first team to defend the title, and also the first host nation to win the title as well.