Matt Henry reacts to India's 255 in T20 World Cup final, hopeful of New Zealand getting job done

Ahmedabad :

India have hammered 255 runs in the first innings of the T20 World Cup 2026 final. Openers Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson went berserk as the duo stitched an opening partnership of 98 runs. The southpaw departed for 52 runs but Samson kept up with the momentum, scoring 89 runs off 46 balls. With that, he also became only the third cricketer after Virat Kohli and Shahid Afridi to score a half-century in both semi-final and final of a T20 World Cup.

Batting at three, Ishan Kishan kept up with the momentum, hitting 54 runs. India’s middle order struggled to live up to the potential but things changed in the final over. James Neesham, who claimed three wickets in the 16th over, was handed the ball, but Shivam Dube knocked him out, hitting sixes all across the park. New Zealand leaked 24 runs in the final overs, as India registered their second-highest total in T20 World Cup history.

India read the wicket well: Henry

Despite this, New Zealand pacer Matt Henry is optimistic about getting the job done. He noted that the team would have preferred to keep it down under 240 runs, but added that the team has all the firepower to go chase it down at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

“Yeah, obviously that’s tough. Obviously, we would have liked to have keep them to probably under 240 there, but, we’ve still got the firepower and the belief in this shed. So I think for us, the way we start, hopefully we can get a good read of the wicket and put them under some pressure,” Henry said after the first innings.

“I think if you look at the way they started, they actually got a read of the wicket. And then from there, they actually looked to accelerate and put us under a lot of pressure. So obviously, it didn’t look like when you’re coming out from ball one, giving yourself a couple of balls. But yeah, for us, frustrating one, but I think we still back our boys to get this done,” he added.

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