Hardik Pandya didn’t wait for the ball to land in Tilak Varma’s hands in the deep before he broke into an impromptu bout of bhangra.
The all-rounder was soon mobbed by support staff who had raced onto the turf while the players scrambled to collect the stumps.
India had just become the first team to retain a T20 World Cup, or win the tournament on home soil, or win it a third time.
The 1 lakh-plus-capacity Narendra Modi Stadium was going berserk, the DJ belting out Maa Tujhe Salaam and Chak De India.
The celebrations seemed well-rehearsed: Schoolchildren invaded the ground waving the Tricolour moments after Abhishek Sharma had dismissed last man Jacob Duffy to seal the 96-run victory.
Similarly planned festivities had gone wrong during the 50-over World Cup final two-and-a-half years ago when Pat Cummins’s Australia revelled in “hearing a big crowd go silent”.
But Sunday night was about player-of-the-series Sanju Samson — the perennially ignored 31-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman who eventually grabbed his long-due moment of glory on the biggest stage — and player-of-the-match Jasprit Bumrah, the 32-year-old assassin whose pace and skill has been a constant in every Indian success this past decade.
While Sanju’s 89 off 46 powered India to 255 for 5, Bumrah’s 4 for 15 helped restrict New Zealand to 159.
“Feels like a dream.… Very happy and grateful. I’m out of words, out of emotions,” Sanju said.
“I was in the 2024 World Cup team where I didn’t play. I kept visualising since, kept on working and this was exactly what I wanted to do.”
Bumrah said: “Feels extremely special because I’ve played one final (2023) in my home venue but couldn’t win that one... but today I won. I knew the wicket was a flat one, so had to use all my experience.”
Bumrah is the highest wicket-taker in this edition of the World Cup alongside spinner Varun Chakravarthy, with 14 each.
Kiwi captain Mitch Santner never managed to “break a few hearts” on Sunday in the presence of India’s previous three World Cup-winning captains.
It was redemption time for Rohit Sharma, who had lost the ODI World Cup final on this very ground in November 2023, a defeat that still rankles. Rohit, who had gone on to win the 2024 T20 World Cup seven months later, basked in the glory of Sunday’s triumph in the company of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Kapil Dev.
New Zealand never seemed to be in the chase since the moment Finn Allen scooped Axar Patel into Tilak’s hands in the deep.
Finals are mostly about nerves, and Santner’s men failed to show the temperament needed.
The Indian batters showed the right intent for such a high-stakes clash, and the bowlers were incisive – except, perhaps, for Varun. Still, the Kiwis never threatened.
A high-octane start had some Indian fans dreaming of a total close to 300, but a fine spell from James Neesham, who took three wickets in one over, pulled things back.
The mixed-soil pitch, with a higher proportion of red soil, meant that the spinners didn’t get much turn and the steady pace on the wicket made stroke-making easy. India’s top order, ridiculed for much of the tournament, finally found its footing on the day that mattered most. Sanju and Abhishek blazed to their opening stand of 98 in just 7 overs.
Sanju had not been favoured in the playing XI in the initial stages of the tournament but never gave up hope. Rohit had urged him not to be disheartened during a tete-a-tete at the Wankhede.
“Dukhi mat ho bhai. It’s a long tournament, kabhi bhi mauka aa sakta hai (Don’t be disheartened.… The opportunity can come anytime),” Rohit had said in a video shared by the ICC on social media.
His words eventually proved prophetic, with Sanju blasting three consecutive innings of 80-plus in India’s last three games — all of them must-win ones — to write his name into the history books.