{"id":315092,"date":"2026-03-06T00:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T00:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/315092\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T00:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T00:24:10","slug":"india-hold-nerve-to-book-t20-world-cup-final-against-black-caps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/315092\/","title":{"rendered":"India hold nerve to book T20 World Cup final against Black Caps"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"India's<\/p>\n

\nIndia’s players celebrate after the dismissal of England’s Jacob Bethell.
\nPhoto: AFP\n<\/p>\n

India to face New Zealand in T20 World Cup final
\n Samson’s 89 and Dube’s 43 key in India’s 253-7
\n Bethell’s 105 off 48 balls nearly leads England to victory <\/p>\n

Defending champions India staved off Jacob Bethell’s brilliant hundred to beat England by seven runs in a thrilling Twenty20 World Cup semi-final.<\/p>\n

India will face the Black Caps in Monday morning’s final in Ahmedabad as they aim to secure an unprecedented second straight T20 World Cup crown.<\/p>\n

Put in to bat, India racked up an imposing 253-7 as Sanju Samson struck a commanding 89, supported by fluent contributions from Shivam Dube and Ishan Kishan.<\/p>\n

England’s chase was kept alive almost single-handedly by Bethell, whose counter-attacking 105 off 48 balls threatened to overhaul the target, but despite a late push from Will Jacks they finished on 246.<\/p>\n

“It’s not easy. You find form at the crucial games for your country. So I thought it’s a big game, so I need to make the most of how I’m batting,” Samson said.<\/p>\n

“We knew no score is stoppable, wanted as much as possible. England came close, played really well.”<\/p>\n

India made a brisk start despite the early loss of Abhishek Sharma for nine.<\/p>\n

Samson, fresh from his unbeaten 97 against West Indies, took on England’s attack with confidence.<\/p>\n

\"India's<\/p>\n

\nIndia’s captain Suryakumar Yadav (C) greets his teammate Sanju Samson (R).
\nPhoto: AFP\n<\/p>\n

He was handed a reprieve on 15 when captain Harry Brook dropped a simple catch in the third over, and he made England pay, adding 97 with Kishan as India raced to 100 in 8.3 overs.<\/p>\n

England turned to off-spinner Will Jacks who removed the wicketkeeper-batter 11 short of his century.<\/p>\n

Kishan fell to Adil Rashid, prompting India to promote Dube to number four and he smashed 43, including four sixes, before a mix-up with Hardik Pandya ended his innings.<\/p>\n

Pandya lit up the closing overs alongside Tilak Varma as England fast bowler Jofra Archer endured the costliest T20 international spell of his career, conceding 61 runs.<\/p>\n

England lost Phil Salt and Brook inside the powerplay, the latter to a superb catch from Axar Patel at deep cover-point.<\/p>\n

Jos Buttler (25) produced his best innings of the tournament before Varun Chakravarthy dismissed him with a googly. Bethell, however, kept England alive with 105 off 48 balls, striking eight fours and seven sixes.<\/p>\n

\"England's<\/p>\n

\nEngland’s Jacob Bethell.
\nPhoto: AFP\n<\/p>\n

“Bethell was absolutely unbelievable, he’ll earn some serious money. To see him taking it from ball one, showed the world what he can do,” Brook said.<\/p>\n

He received support from Jacks before Patel dismissed the latter with a superb catch, relaying the ball to Shivam Dube as he crossed the rope.<\/p>\n

India held their nerve in the closing overs, with Jasprit Bumrah controlling the run flow through pinpoint yorkers.<\/p>\n

Archer hit late sixes but England finished on 246, falling just short of what could have been a record chase at the venue.<\/p>\n

– Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"India’s players celebrate after the dismissal of England’s Jacob Bethell. Photo: AFP India to face New Zealand in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-315092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}