Flashback: T20 World Cup 2021 final

The seventh edition of the tournament was originally scheduled to take place in 2020 but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. UAE and Oman hosted the 2021 T20 World Cup due to the worsening Covid-19 situation in India. New Zealand beat England by five wickets in the first semi-final clash to book the first spot in the final. Australia reached the final of the T20 World Cup for the second time in history after defeating Pakistan by five wickets in the second semi-final. The final of the tournament was played at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on November 14.

Australian captain Aaron Finch won the toss and as expected decided to bowl first. The right-arm pacer Josh Hazlewood dismissed Daryl Mitchell on 11 runs in the fourth over to give Australia a flying start. But captain Kane Williamson and opener Martin Guptill formed a crucial 48-run partnership for the second wicket to keep New Zealand alive in the game.

Guptill was dismissed by spinner Adam Zampa on 28 runs in the 12th over. But Williamson continued to score runs from the other end with another crucial partnership with Glenn Phillips for the third wicket. Williamson scored the highest 85 runs off 48 balls to guide New Zealand to a challenging total of 172/4 while Hazlewood took three wickets for Australia.

While chasing a big 173-run target, Australia lost Finch on just five runs on Trent Boult’s delivery in the third over. But David Warner and Mitchell Marsh avoided further early slip-ups with defining 92-run partnership for the second wicket. Boult bowled out Warner in the 13th over who scored 53 runs off 38 balls. But after Warner’s dismissal, Kiwi bowlers struggled for wickets.

Australia needed only 11 runs to win from the last 12 balls with Marsh and Glenn Maxwell in the middle. Marsh smashed four on the first delivery by Tim Southee and Maxwell grabbed another four on the fifth delivery to finish the game with seven balls remaining. Marsh remained unbeaten on 77 runs off 50 balls and Maxwell smashed 28 runs off 18 balls to guide Australia to a big eight-wicket win.

Marsh won the player of the match award for his 77* knock and Warner grabbed the player of the tournament trophy for scoring 289 runs in seven innings with the help of three fifties.