Will India’s cult status crumble under New Zealand?

History and current status may count for very little when India and New Zealand meet in the final of the T20 World Cup to be played on Sunday in Ahmadabad, India.

New Zealand eventually became the Dark Horse and booked their place in the final when very few pundits rated them with the emphasis being on teams like South Africa and Australia.

But the Kiwis earned their place in the final the hard and unexpected way as they dumped South Africa is a rousing display of batting in the semifinal winning the contest by a whopping nine wickets while needing just 12.5 overs to accomplish the task.

But while Sunday’s final will be a different occasion, New Zealand’s opening pair of Tim Seifert and Finn Allen have given their team something to go by after they posted a century stand in pursuit of the 170 target against South Africa.

While their Kiwi supporters and other followers of the teams that failed to make it to the final will no doubt be on the side of New Zealand, India according to analysts would have only the Indians to support them.

Perhaps New Zealand, leaving aside the unexpected, have reached peak form at the right time and so is India as far as the batting of both countries are concerned.

While Seifert and Allen will be New Zealand’s top two batters to deliver, it can also come down to another key player in Daryl Mitchell who is yet to mark his presence.

If present form, home advantage and being the favourite of bookies are factors that put India in good stead, they cannot be counted out going by the book.

They reached a kind of cult status in their last two matches against the West Indies and England thanks to a man, Sanju Samson, who had no proper clout in the line-up but rose on both occasions to lift India through to the final.

Reaching a 195 target against the West Indies in what was a virtual quarter final and then hammering a total in excess of 250 batting first in the semifinal against England put India on a pedestal just in time.

But unlike the West Indies who may have planned for all Indian frontline batters except for Samson, it is very unlikely that New Zealand will make the same mistake the cricketers from the Caribbean did that could put the home under scrutiny from all angles.

Likewise none would expect India to post a total in access of 200 a second time running should they bat first.

The teams:
New Zealand: Mitchell Santner (captain), Tim Seifert, Finn Allen, Rachin Ranindra, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Cole McConchie, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson

India: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Tilak Varma, Axar Patel, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah