5 match-winners for India – Sanju Samson slams consecutive fifties:Jasprit Bumrah Hardik Pandya’s bowling too hot to handle

India has reached the final of the T20 World Cup 2026. The team defeated England by 7 runs in the semi-final match played at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday. Sanju Samson’s second consecutive fifty and the bowling of Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya played a big role in this victory. Apart from them, Ishan Kishan and Varun also proved crucial for the team throughout the tournament, whose performances paved India’s way to the final. Samson played an innings of 97 runs in the do-or-die match against West Indies. Ishan Kishan’s innings of 77 runs against Pakistan led the team to victory. Meanwhile, Varun is India’s highest wicket-taker in the tournament. In the story, the 5 heroes who took India to the final. 1. Jasprit Bumrah: Best in business On Thursday, chasing a target of 254 runs in the second semi-final, England had scored 185 runs for 5 wickets in 15 overs. At that time, Sam Curran was batting on 5 and Jacob Bethell on 81 runs. The match seemed to be going England’s way, when captain Suryakumar Yadav handed the ball to Jasprit Bumrah. Bumrah gave away just 8 runs in this over, which put pressure on England. However, in the next over, Arshdeep Singh conceded 16 runs. From here, England needed to score 45 runs in 18 balls. In such a situation, Bumrah bowled brilliantly under pressure, giving away only 6 runs and bringing India back into the match. Hardik Pandya benefited from this in the 19th over. On Pandya’s ball, Sam Curran (18 runs) was caught by Tilak Varma. After this, the match tilted in India’s favor. Earlier, on February 14 in Colombo, while defending a target of 176 runs against Pakistan, Bumrah put Pakistan under pressure by sending Saim Ayub (6 runs) and captain Salman Ali Agha (4 runs) back to the pavilion in the same over. After this, the Pakistani team could not recover and lost the match by 61 runs. With this win, India secured a spot in the Super-8. Bumrah has taken 10 wickets in 7 matches so far.
2. Sanju Samson – Back to back fifties In the semi-final against England, India lost Abhishek Sharma’s wicket (9 runs) at 20 runs. From here, Sanju Samson laid the foundation for a strong score by playing an innings of 89 runs off 42 balls. He shared a 97-run partnership for the second wicket with Ishan Kishan in 45 balls. Earlier, Samson played an unbeaten innings of 97 runs in the do-or-die India-West Indies match in Kolkata on March 1. He opened for the Indian team, chasing a target of 196 runs, and returned after leading the team to victory. Samson scored an unbeaten 97 runs off 50 balls. He has scored a total of 232 runs in 4 matches.
3. Hardik Pandya: Double performance in semifinal In the semi-final match against England, Hardik Pandya delivered an all-round performance. He scored 27 runs off 12 balls at a strike rate of 225.00, taking Team India’s score past 250. Additionally, while England was chasing a target of 254 runs, he took a crucial wicket in the 19th over, conceding only 9 runs. Pandya took 2 wickets for 38 runs in 4 overs in the match. Pandya has scored 199 runs in 8 matches played so far at a strike rate of 163.11, including two half-centuries. He also bowled with the new ball and sent Pakistan’s Sahibzada Farhan back to the pavilion for a duck in the very first over. Pandya has taken 8 wickets in the tournament so far.
4. Ishan Kishan: Scored a fifty against Pakistan Ishan opened with Abhishek Sharma against Pakistan, but Abhishek was out for a duck. After this, Ishan shared an 88-run partnership for the second wicket with Tilak Varma. This partnership played a crucial role in taking the team to a score of 175 runs. Ishan scored 77 runs in this match. He also played an innings of 61 runs against Namibia. Ishan is India’s top scorer in the current World Cup. He has scored 263 runs in 8 matches at a strike rate of 189.20, which includes 2 half-centuries.
5. Varun Chakravarthy: India’s Top Wicket-Takers Varun is India’s top wicket-taker in the T20 World Cup 2026. He has taken 13 wickets in 8 matches played so far. He took 3-3 wickets against Namibia and Netherlands, and also bagged 2 wickets against Pakistan.