India wicketkeeper Sanju Samson played a key role in Finn Allen’s dismissal during the IND vs NZ T20 World Cup 2026 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
While chasing a huge target of 256 in the T20 World Cup 2026 final, Finn Allen had earlier received a lifeline when he was dropped by Shivam Dube in the first over bowled by Arshdeep Singh. Coming into the match after scoring a stunning 100* off just 33 balls against South Africa in the semi-final, Allen was one of the most dangerous batters in New Zealand’s lineup.
Hardik Pandya then bowled the second over of the innings and conceded 21 runs, with Tim Seifert giving New Zealand a quick start.
After that expensive over, captain Suryakumar Yadav decided to bring Axar Patel into the attack instead of giving the next over back to Arshdeep Singh.
On the third ball of Axar’s over, Allen smashed him straight over the non-striker’s head towards long-on for a boundary. Before the fourth delivery, Sanju Samson gestured to Axar to bowl at the stumps after noticing that Allen was standing deep in the crease to play on the back foot.
Axar then bowled a quicker delivery aimed at the stumps, which cramped Allen for room. Allen went back to play a slog pull but mistimed the shot off the inside half of the bat, and the ball went flat and straight to Tilak Varma at long-on. He was dismissed for 9 off 7 balls.
It turned out to be an important early wicket for India and must have relieved Shivam Dube, who had dropped Allen on a duck earlier. After that, New Zealand kept losing wickets regularly and were never really in the game.
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Sanju Samson played an important role in India’s batting lineup in the later stages of the tournament. After being dropped at the start of the tournament, no one would have thought that Samson would finish the T20 World Cup 2026 as the Player of the Tournament.
Despite playing only five matches, he scored 321 runs at an average of 80.25 and a strike rate of 199.37. Samson got his first chance in the match against Namibia when Abhishek Sharma was unwell. At that time, he would not have expected to play the remaining matches of the tournament.
However, as India’s top order struggled to score runs, Samson returned to the team as an opener in the match against Zimbabwe. After his return, India scored 250+ totals in three of the next four matches and also successfully chased a target of over 190.
Samson scored three consecutive half-centuries and became only the third player after Shahid Afridi and Virat Kohli to score 50+ runs in both the semi-final and the final of a T20 World Cup.
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