New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner said he was proud of his team’s efforts despite the Kiwis falling short against India in the final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
The Black Caps had entered the title clash full of confidence after upsetting South Africa in the semi-finals. However, they were outplayed by the tournament co-hosts, suffering a 96-run defeat.
It marked the second time this decade that New Zealand have finished runners-up in the T20 World Cup, having also lost the 2021 final to Australia.
The result also followed another near miss in the ICC Champions Trophy in March last year. Despite the disappointment, Santner believes these consistent deep runs show that his side is moving closer to winning a major title.
“I guess it’s not ideal, losing semis and finals, but like I said the other day, you get to this situation, you’re coming up against teams that are also playing very good cricket,” Santner said.
“India in a final, and India is always going to be a challenge. We knew that definitely the underdogs going into the game. And they showed their class again tonight, with that batting performance.
“And then, everything kind of has to go well when you’re chasing 250. And losing the wickets in the Powerplay is always a challenge. I think that was the tale of the day, was the two power plays. I think we were three for 40 odd and they were 90 odd for none,” he added.
Santner also acknowledged the strong support the team received from fans back home and said playing in front of a crowd of nearly 90,000, largely backing the hosts, added to the occasion.
“It’s thanks to the fans back home for following us,” Santner continued.
“I might have to go to work obviously without a trophy today but we’ve obviously great support back home and we get great support here as well.
“It was awesome to play in front of so many people tonight that obviously had a few blue shirts on and not many black shirts but again it’s always a great occasion and it’s always cool for us to play in front of so many people. It obviously wasn’t our greatest effort tonight as we came up against a very good team, but I am thanking the fans back home,” he added.
New Zealand will now shift their focus to next year’s ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, which will be hosted across South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Santner also highlighted the opportunity ahead when New Zealand co-host the next T20 World Cup with Australia in 2028.
“It’s probably quite far away that I think, so we will reflect as a group tonight, over the next few days of, I guess, this tournament and what it looked like,” Santner added.
“I think to make it to a final is obviously a pretty good effort from the boys and they should be very proud of their efforts throughout this tournament. And then I guess the next kind of major events one day is in South Africa, like you said, it’s going to play slightly different to what we expect here.
“And then our next T20 World Cup is in Australia and New Zealand, so it’ll be nice to get a few fans and the crowd there in familiar conditions. That’s one of the hardest things is to win a World Cup in your country. So for India to do that, this obviously comes with a lot of added pressure, home fans. So for them to win this trophy tonight, they should be very proud of that,” he signed off.