Picture Credit: Twitter
After 2014, a new winner will be crowned as the T20 WC champion. The fans are expecting an interesting battle between New Zealand and Australia in the last match of 2021 T20 WC. New Zealand would love to win two ICC trophies in the same year after a heart breaking loss to England in 2019 WC. Meanwhile, the five-time World Cup champions Australia will be very eager to lift their maiden T20 World Cup trophy (One format where Aussies have failed to win a trophy so far). These two teams have faced each other only once in T20 WC during 2016 and Kiwi's ended up winning the game by small margin of just 8 runs.
Earlier in Feb-Mar 2021, the two teams played 5 match T20I series and New Zealand ended up winning the series by 3-2 margin on their own soil. Australia have lost all their bilateral T20I series that they have played this year against New Zealand, West Indies and Bangladesh respectively while New Zealand also lost T20I series to Bangladesh by 3-2 margin. Despite such failures, these two sides have managed to enter T20 World Cup final.
Numbers and Stats before start of NZ vs Aus T20 WC 2021 final game:
2 - Tim Southee needs 2 more wickets to surpass Nathan McCullum and become the leading wicket-taker for New Zealand in T20 WCs.
3 - Kane Williamson will lead New Zealand for 3rd consecutive ICC finals after 2019 WC & 2021 WTC.
Most ICC finals played as captain:
R.Ponting : 4 (2003-09)
MS Dhoni : 4 (2007-14)
C.Lloyd : 3 (1975-83)
S.Ganguly : 3 (2000-03)
B.Lara : 3 (1998-06)
K.Williamson : 3 (2019-21)
4 - David Warner needs 4 more sixes to become 2nd Australian player to complete smashing 100 sixes in T20Is.
6 - Aaron Finch needs 25 more runs to become 6th player to smash 10,000 runs in T20s.
11 - Trent Boult has taken 11 wickets in T20 WC 2021 so far.
Most wickets for a New Zealand bowler in a single T20 WC edition:
Daniel Vettori - 11 (2007)
Trent Boult - 11 (2021)
Mitchell Santner / Ish Sodhi - 10 (2016)
11 - 11 out of 12 games in Dubai venue have been won by the chasing side only in T20 WC 2021 so far.
12 - Adam Zampa has taken 12 wickets in T20 WC 2021 so far.
Most wickets for an Australian bowler in a single T20 WC edition:
Dirk Nannes - 14 (2010)
Stuart Clark - 12 (2007)
Adam Zampa - 12 (2021)
49 - Martin Guptill needs 49 more runs to surpass Brendon McCullum and become the highest run-scorer for New Zealand in T20 WCs.
2015 - Before 2021 T20 WC, last time Australia played finals in an ICC event was during 2015 and they faced New Zealand as their opponent in that match 6 years back as well. Co-incidentally, New Zealand qualified for the finals of ODI WC for the first time during 2015 and in 2021, they have qualified for the finals of T20 WC for the first time.