After being dropped on 17 by Josh Hazlewood, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson smashed 85 off 48 balls to propel his team to a competitive 172/4 in 20 overs against Australia in the T20 World Cup final on Sunday in Dubai. Australia won the toss and opted to bowl first. The teams that fielded first in Dubai in this World Cup have won most of the matches (11 out of 12). That trend might have given Australian captain Aaron Finch the advantage on winning the toss. Williamson's 85 is the highest score by a captain in T20 World Cup finals. Along the way, Williamson surpassed 64 of Sri Lanka’s former captain Kumar Sangakkara (2014). And, it was the joint highest innings by any batsman tied with Marlon Samuel’s 85 not out in 2016. Read:ICC T20 World Cup 2021 Final: Which Players would make it to an Australia-New Zealand Combined T20I XI? During the powerplay, New Zealand remained mostly quiet as they scored 32 for one. In the next 5 overs, the Blackcaps scored only 25 runs without any further loss of wicket. In the 11th over, Williamson hit Mitchell Starc off three fours and amassed 19 runs in that over. When Williamson was on fire, Martin Guptil was slightly slow, but his slow stay in the middle ended off the first ball of the 12th over when he went for the slog-sweep, but couldn’t hit the ball well and caught at the deep mid-wicket area. Williamson picked up his fifty off 32 balls hitting Glenn Maxwell for two sixes in the 13th over. At the end of 15 overs, New Zealand were at 114 for two. In the 16th over, Williamson went after Starc and smashed him off four fours and one six to score 22 runs with a dot. Read:T20 World Cup: Finalists eye maiden title in shortest format However, in the 18th over, Hazlewood scalped two wickets and kept New Zealand down under 180 runs. New Zealand’s highest partnership came in the third wicket when Williamson and Guptil added 68 off 37 balls. The Blackcaps eventually, ended up on 172 for four in 20 overs. They couldn’t hit the ball well in the last two overs when they posted only 23 runs, after Williamson was dismissed.

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, Bangladesh lost by three runs to West Indies in Sharjah Friday, a perfect losing record in their first three games meaning they become the first team to be eliminated, i.e. with no chance of qualifying from their Super 12s group in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup.  In their remaining two matches of this stage of the World Cup, they will take on South Africa and Australia on November 2 and 4. But these will merely offer the chance to salvage some prestige at best.  To pull up the maiden win in the Super 12s stage of the T20 World Cup, Bangladesh needed to score 34 off the last four overs with six wickets in hand, Liton Das and captain Mahmudullah Riyad at the crease. But despite some misfields and a dropped catch by the West Indians, the Tigers fell short.  Liton was playing the anchor, and having taken it deep, should have been the one to see the team through to victory at that point. Instead he started wasting deliveries, erratically moving around the crease with no benefit, got no boundaries and then off the last delivery of the 19th over, holed out at long on to a great catch by Jason Holder. The batsmen crossed, and it meant new batsman Afif would be on strike for the start of the 20th over, with 13 needed to win. Tigers' inability to hit boundaries to relieve pressure cost them dearly.  Riyad was on strike for the last three deliveries, needing 8 to win. One boundary would probably have carried the team over the line. Instead he gave a catch, but was dropped at deep square leg, they completed two runs. The next delivery yielded two more thanks to a misfield. Riyad faced the last ball with 4 needed for victory.  READ: Australia canters to 7-wicket World Cup win over Sri Lanka Demonstrating the art of keeping calm under pressure, Andre Russell put it right in the blockhole, and Riyad completely missed it.   Bangladesh ended up on 139 for 5 in 20 overs and endured a third straight defeat in the Super 12s.  In reply to West Indies’ 142, Bangladesh started well as Shakib Al Hasan and Mohammad Naim opened the innings. It was the first time in his T20I career when Shakib takes the field as an opener. They added 21 in the first wicket stand.