Many delectable dishes in Indian batting buffet

Ahmedabad, Mar 8 (PTI) The Indian batting buffet presented such a delectable fare at the top on Sunday that it was tough to choose the best.

Sanju Samson tore apart the New Zealand attack with a fearless 89; Abhishek Sharma rediscovered his lost touch with a destructive 21-ball 52 and Mr. Dependable Ishan Kishan gathered a neat 54 in the T20 World Cup final here.

Put in to bat by the Black Caps, India's No. 1, 2 and 3 unleashed a blitzkrieg befitting the finale.

Each one of them played a near chanceless inning, and everything that their bat touched turned into gold. The match seemed as good as won in the powerplay when openers Samson and Sharma put together 92 for no loss in six overs, a T20 record for the first wicket.

Half-way through the match, India was 127/1. By the time 15 overs were up, India was 203/1, and a massive score loomed large.

By the time the 20th over was bowled, India was sitting pretty with 255 runs, the highest in a T20 World Cup final.

Along the way, Shivam Dube helped himself to an 8-ball 26 with three fours and two sixes.

There was a little hiccup in the first ball of the 16th over when Samson once again fell at 89, just as he had in the semi-final. In the same over, Kishan also departed and so did skipper Suryakumar Yadav for a first ball duck.

Samson's knock came in 46 balls with eight sixes and five fours at a strike rate of nearly 194. Earlier Sharma helped himself to half a dozen fours and three sixes in his 21-ball knock.

Once Sharma departed -- after a 43-ball 98-run partnership with Samson -- Kishan stepped in. He and Samson teamed for a 105-run partnership in 48 balls.

Samson's ferocity was such that he was scoring a boundary every 3.5 balls. Three quarter of all balls he faced were hit to the fence, either along the ground or via the sky.

He hit sixes at will – to third man, long leg, square leg, cover and straight down the pitch.

He didn't care if it was spin (three of the sixes were against Rachin Ravindran) or hit-the-deck fast (Lockie Ferguson got hit for three sixes) or medium pace (Matt Henry was hit twice over the ropes).

On the sidelines just a few weeks back, the wicket-keeper batsman from Kerala has secured his place in history with his last three knocks in the 2026 edition of the T20 World Cup.

His 97 against West Indies rescued him from the precipice in the Super Eight. The 89 against England confirmed his brilliance. The matching score against the Kiwis stamped his authority. PTI VJ PM PM PM