Phillips, Ravindra make light work of Canada's 173; Samra's record-setting hundred goes in vain

Match Overview

Canada and New Zealand locked horns in the 31st match of the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Tuesday, February 17. Canada captain Dilpreet Bajwa won the toss and elected to bat first.

The openers - Yuvraj Samra and Bajwa - provided their team with a fantastic start as the Canadians finished the powerplay at 50 for no loss. Samra was the aggressor of the two as the left-hander brought up his half century off 36 balls in the 11th over. The openers carried on with the momentum and even crossed the 100-run mark in the 13th over.

New Zealand were desperately in need of a breakthrough and it finally came when Bajwa was caught in the next over. Navneet Dhaliwal joined Samra and the duo scored a quickfire 37 off 22 balls before the former was dismissed. Samra, who was going strong at the other end, reached the three-figure mark in 58 balls. Notably, it was the 19-year-old's maiden ton and he also became the youngest batter to score a century in the T20 World Cups. Canada, meanwhile, finished at a competitive-looking 173/4 after their 20 overs.

New Zealand started briskly, but were pegged back around the three-over mark with a couple of wickets. The scoreboard read 30/2 as Rachin Ravindra and Glenn Phillips now joined forces. The pair counterattacked and hardly relented, going at over 10 runs per overs at most of the times. Both the batters completed their respective fifties as Canada were unable to break the partnership. Phillips was the aggressor of the two as New Zealand got closer to the target in quick time.

In the end, the Kiwis made light work of Canada's 174-run target, achieving it in just 15.1 overs. The duo remained unbeaten as the partnership was worth 146 runs off 73 balls. With the win, New Zealand cemented their place in the Super Eights and will head to Sri Lanka for all of their three matches.

Top run-scorer of the match

Top wicket-taker of the match

Player of the Match

Glenn Phillips

Phillips came out at number four after the Kiwis suffered a dual blow. The aggressive right-hander looked positive right from the beginning and made full use of the good track to play his strokes. It was a usual Glenn Phillips innings with sixes being more than the fours. The 29-year-old formed a crucial third-wicket partnership with Ravindra and complemented the left-hander with his intent which did not allow any pressure to get to the Kiwis once they got set. 

Turning Point

The unbroken 146-run stand between Phillips and Ravindra was the turning point of the match. After New Zealand suffered two quick wickets and were 30/2 in the fourth over, a steady partnership was required and the left-right pair provided just that and more. The duo played positive and aggressive cricket to take their team to a position of comfort and soon to a position of dominance.

What the captains said

Winning Team Captain, Daryl Mitchell (NZ)

"He's (Santner) obviously felt a bit poor, but he seems to be improving as the day goes on. But yeah, I think he'll be fine for the next one, I'm sure. (On Yuvraj Samra) Yeah, look, he played beautifully and I think, yeah, on that surface, which looked like a pretty nice pitch to keep them to 170 when a guy gets 110, it was a great effort by our boys. But I take my hat off to him. He played really well."

"(What was the feeling when they lost Seifert and Allen early?) Oh, look, we back everyone in the side. We obviously got the Bash Brothers up top who do their thing. It's the nature of, I guess, how we try to line up with our team is that we know we bat really deep and everyone can get the job done on the day. (On the surface) Yeah, look, I thought it was a great pitch. I love playing here at Chepauk. Obviously a number of us have been a part of the CSK family here as well over our time."

Losing Team Captain, Dilpreet Bajwa (CAN)

"We were a bit confident. Of course, we have one bowler short, Kaleem Sana, but we were a bit confident that ball's gonna spin. When Bin (Saad Bin Zafar) and the other guy was bowling, ball was spinning. But yeah, hard luck happened. The one bowler short affected us."

"(On his 116-run opening stand with Yuvraj) I think we were struggling from top-order. In the last two games, we were losing our four or five wickets in circles. So our plan was to just take in the ground and as much over we can play. And I think, hats off to Yuvraj. He's just youngest player in the World Cup and finishing with a hundred this match. I think very proud moment for him. And I think it's a very proud moment for all Canadians that we had a hundred run partnership by opening pair against one of the biggest team. And I think when you play against these teams that we are lacking as associate and we learned quickly that in the last two games, we were losing wickets, but we planned accordingly and we did well this time."