India lifted the ICC Men's T20 World Cup trophy for a third time on 8 March 2026, beating New Zealand by 96 runs at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The tenth edition of the tournament, co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka from 7 February to 8 March, ran across 55 matches and 8 venues. For fans who followed every ball and for those still catching up on the highlights, here is the complete reference guide to how the tournament unfolded.
How the tournament played out
Twenty teams were split into four groups of five. The top two from each group advanced to the Super Eight stage, with the qualifiers further divided into two groups of four. The top two from each Super Eight group made the semi-finals. Bangladesh withdrew from the tournament a fortnight before the start, citing security concerns, and were replaced by Scotland in Group C. Pakistan played all their fixtures in Sri Lanka under the neutral-venue agreement with the BCCI, including the much-anticipated India vs Pakistan group game in Colombo, which India won.
Stage | Dates | Matches | Notes |
Group Stage | 7–17 February | 40 | 20 teams across 4 groups |
Super Eights | 18 February – 1 March | 12 | 8 teams across 2 groups |
Semi-final 1 | 4 March | 1 | New Zealand beat South Africa at Eden Gardens, Kolkata |
Semi-final 2 | 5 March | 1 | India beat England by 7 runs at the Wankhede, Mumbai |
Final | 8 March | 1 | India beat New Zealand by 96 runs (Ahmedabad) |
The eight host venues were Narendra Modi Stadium (Ahmedabad), Wankhede Stadium (Mumbai), Eden Gardens (Kolkata), MA Chidambaram Stadium (Chennai), Arun Jaitley Stadium (Delhi), R. Premadasa Stadium (Colombo), Sinhalese Sports Club Ground (Colombo), and Pallekele International Cricket Stadium (Kandy). For a deeper breakdown of how the knockout phase was structured, our Super Eights explainer covers the full qualification pathway.
Catching the highlights from anywhere
The tournament may be over, but the demand for replays, highlights, and full-match archives is far from gone. Diaspora fans, supporters who travelled during the group stage, and viewers who want to revisit Bumrah's 4/15 in the final are all running into the same issue: broadcast rights for ICC events are split across regional partners — Star Sports/Disney+ Hotstar in India, Sky Sports in the UK, Willow TV in the US, SuperSport in South Africa, and so on. That means a replay available on one regional service is often blocked when you're outside that region.
The practical workaround is straightforward. If you're a Mac user looking to access archive content from a service you legitimately subscribe to while abroad, you can install a VPN on a Mac to connect through a server in your home country and reach the regional library. Travellers, students studying overseas, and expats use this approach to keep up with home-broadcaster coverage of ICC content all the time. For free, official highlights packages and tournament news, the ICC's official T20 World Cup 2026 page remains the most reliable source — and is freely accessible from most regions.
The standout performances
The tournament produced a long list of memorable individual displays. Among the most notable:
Sanju Samson (India) — named Player of the Series after 321 runs, including an 89 off 42 balls in the semi-final against England and another 89 in the final.
Sahibzada Farhan (Pakistan) — finished as the leading run-scorer with 383 runs, the highest by any batter in a single edition of the tournament, including two centuries (also a tournament record).
Jasprit Bumrah (India) — joint-leading wicket-taker with 14, Player of the Match in the final for a 4/15 spell.
Varun Chakravarthy (India) — the other 14-wicket bowler, taking the decisive wicket of the tournament in the final
Finn Allen (New Zealand) — scored the fastest century in T20 World Cup history, 100 off 33 balls in the semi-final against South Africa
Tim Seifert (New Zealand) — 326 runs across the tournament, second-most overall
Romario Shepherd (West Indies) — took the first hat-trick of the 2026 tournament against Scotland in the opener, becoming the first West Indian to record a T20 World Cup hat-trick (figures of 5/20)
Italy — historic 10-wicket win over Nepal in Mumbai on their first World Cup appearance in any format, sealed by an unbeaten partnership of 124 from the Sydney-raised Mosca brothers
What it means for the wider cricket calendar
India became the first team to win the T20 World Cup three times, the first to defend the title back-to-back, and the first host nation to lift the trophy on home soil. The 255/5 they posted in the final was the highest total ever made in a T20 World Cup final. For New Zealand, a first ICC senior men's title remains elusive after another final defeat — their second T20 World Cup final loss after 2021. Attention now shifts to the rest of the 2026 calendar, but the 2026 men's edition has already set a high bar. The matches are over. The archive, for fans who know where to look, is just getting started.
