AHMEDABAD, March 7: The scars of November 19, 2023 are still fresh for a billion Indian cricket fans. On that day, Pat Cummins famously kept his promise to silence the roaring crowd at the Narendra Modi Stadium as Australia defeated India in the final of the 2023 ICC ODI World Cup. India found some redemption in the months that followed, lifting the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup in Barbados.
Now, nearly 18 months later, India return to the same Ahmedabad venue with a chance to defend their T20 World Cup crown, this time against a confident New Zealand side chasing its first ICC white-ball title since 2000.
India can draw confidence from their recent success against the Kiwis. On March 9, 2025, they defeated a similar New Zealand lineup in the ICC Champions Trophy final in Dubai.
However, India’s record at the Narendra Modi Stadium has been far from convincing. Even in the ongoing T20 World Cup, they suffered their only defeat of the competition here against South Africa in the Super Eight stage before victories over Zimbabwe and West Indies helped them progress to the semifinals, where they narrowly overcame England in Mumbai.
New Zealand, on the other hand, arrive for the summit clash brimming with confidence after a commanding nine-wicket win over the Proteas in the first semifinal. Interestingly, the Black Caps had entered the tournament following a 1-4 bilateral series defeat to India in January.
Yet history suggests that New Zealand have often held the upper hand in ICC events. The two sides first met in a T20 World Cup during the inaugural edition in 2007, where MS Dhoni’s India lost by 10 runs. In 2016, New Zealand again prevailed, beating India by 47 runs in Nagpur in a low-scoring encounter. Their most recent T20 World Cup meeting came in 2021 in Dubai, where the Kiwis handed India an eight-wicket defeat.
Beyond T20 World Cups, New Zealand have also dealt India painful blows on the global stage. They famously knocked India out in the semifinal of the 2019 ICC ODI World Cup in Manchester and later defeated them in the final of the inaugural ICC World Test Championship Final 2021 in Southampton.
In a striking coincidence, the two occasions when New Zealand lifted major ICC silverware- the ICC KnockOut Trophy 2000 and the ICC World Test Championship 2019-2021, both came at India’s expense.
This time, however, India are determined to rewrite the narrative. Led by Suryakumar Yadav, the defending champions have the opportunity to script history in Ahmedabad. A victory would make India the first team to successfully defend a T20 World Cup title, the first nation to win the tournament three times, and the first team to lift the trophy on home soil.
The stakes are equally significant for the host city. Ahmedabad is seeking to build momentum as it eyes hosting the 2030 Commonwealth Games and harbours ambitions of staging the 2036 Summer Olympics. Weather conditions on Sunday are expected to be challenging, with forecasts predicting intense heat and hazy sunshine.
Temperatures in Ahmedabad could rise to around 41 C during the day before cooling slightly in the evening, with readings expected to drop to about 29 C by the scheduled match time around 7 pm.
(UNI)
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