Finn Allen plundered the fastest century in Twenty20 World Cup history to lead New Zealand into the final with \u200ca nine-wicket demolition of South Africa at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
South Africa, previously unbeaten in the tournament, recovered from a precarious 77-5 to post a competitive 169-8 \u200cafter Marco Jansen led their recovery with a belligerent 55 not out.<\/p>\n
Allen smashed an unbeaten 100 off 33 balls, however, and shared a 117-run opening \u200cstand with Tim Seifert (58) as New Zealand romped to their target in only 12.5 overs. Allen, who hit eight sixes, finished the match with his 10th four to bring up the fastest hundred in a T20 international between two full-member nations.<\/p>\n
Finn Allen\u2019s blazing ton in the chase gets New Zealand into their second Men\u2019s\u00a0#T20WorldCup\u00a0final \ud83d\udd25<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“I’d \u2060say it’s pretty up there,” player of the match Allen said. “Obviously, we wanted to try and \u200cput them on the back foot early. I think it’s easy for me when Timmy’s going like that. I can kind of just watch and then hit it when it’s in my area and then just try and give him \u2060the strike.”<\/p>\n
South Africa went into the match on the back of seven \u2060wins in a row, including a seven-wicket \u200cthumping of New Zealand in a group match. The presence of two left-handed batters in South Africa’s top three prompted New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner to bring on off-spinner Cole McConchie as early as the second over, and the move immediately paid off.<\/p>\n
BIG MOMENT!<\/p>\n
A superb catch from Daryl Mitchell in the deep draws curtains for Aiden Markram \u261d\ufe0f#T20WorldCup\u00a0broadcast details \u27a1\ufe0f\u00a0https:\/\/t.co\/NPykWM7qqY\u00a0pic.twitter.com\/2ww42zDeVf<\/p>\n
=Quinton de Kock (10) was snared at mid-on and Ryan Rickelton slashed the ball to backward point off the next delivery. New Zealand were denied a third powerplay strike when Rachin Ravindra spilled Aiden Markram (18) at \u2060midwicket with the South Africa captain on three.<\/p>\n
High-flyer Finn Allen with another monstrous six as New Zealand charge towards the final \ud83d\ude0d
\n#T20WorldCup\u00a0broadcast details \ud83d\udc49\u00a0https:\/\/t.co\/NPykWM7qqY\u00a0pic.twitter.com\/xLf3cYdFQ6<\/p>\n
\u2014 ICC (@ICC)\u00a0March 4, 2026
\nRavindra made amends in his first over, however, as Markram was adjudged out even though \u2060fielder Daryl Mitchell himself was uncertain he had completed a clean catch in the deep. More drama followed in Ravindra’s next over when Glenn Phillips dropped David Miller, but five balls later Mitchell held on at long-off to remove him.<\/p>\n
Jimmy Neesham dismissed the dangerous Dewald Brevis (34) to reduce South Africa to 77-5 in the 11th over, but the Proteas fought back as Jansen combined with Tristan Stubbs (29) in a rapid 73-run stand.<\/p>\n
Marco Jansen leads South Africa’s fightback with a fifty against New Zealand \ud83d\udcaa<\/p>\n
It is one of the\u00a0@marriottbonvoy\u00a0Milestones of the\u00a0#T20WorldCup\u00a02026.<\/p>\n
Allen and Seifert looked in a hurry to finish the job from \u2060the start, amassing 84 runs in the six powerplay overs to take control of the match. Allen plundered 22 runs from a Corbin Bosch over in a scintillating display of power-hitting, and it was not until the 10th over that Kagiso Rabada beat Seifert’s swipe across the line and sent the bails flying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Finn Allen plundered the fastest century in Twenty20 World Cup history to lead New Zealand into the final with \u200ca nine-wicket demolition of South Africa at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday. South Africa, previously unbeaten in the tournament, recovered from a precarious 77-5 to post a competitive 169-8 \u200cafter Marco Jansen led their recovery with …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2055"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2060,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2055\/revisions\/2060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}