There are certain moments in a high-pressure final that can decide the course of the game. For New Zealand, holding back Glenn Phillips in the T20 World Cup 2026 final against India seemed to be one of those defining moments. Phillips was the only right-arm spinner that the Blackcaps had in their lineup for the game, with Cole McConchie being dropped for Jacob Duffy. Yet, the all-rounder bowled just one over and gave away five runs in it, and never got the ball again.
This allowed the Indian batters to break free and put on a mammoth 255 in the final, ultimately ending up with a win and the title. Speaking at the post-match press conference, Santner explained the reason behind the call. The New Zealand skipper said that the way Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson played Phillips brilliantly, which made him go to the pacers in the hope of getting something off the track.
Santner further stated that if Samson was dismissed early, then Phillips would have come on to bowl against Abhishek and Kishan.

"I think the way they played the over, Abishek, I thought played that very smart. I know at times he comes a little bit hard at the off spinner, but he gave it over to Sanju. And then I think the first kind of three overs is when the ball is doing its most. And then I think you can really capitalise on the last three of the power play as they did. So it was always going to be hard. I think if Sanju got out, it would have been another option for GP to bowl to the two left-handers. But when you're not taking wickets, it's always a challenge," said Samson.

WHY DID NEW ZEALAND DROP MCCONCHIE?
Given India's struggles against off-spin bowlers during the tournament, it seemed like a logical call to include McConchie for the game. But Santner said there wasn't a lot of spin on offer during the game, and he felt the pacers would get a lot of bounce off the flat deck that was on offer at Narendra Modi Stadium.
"Yeah, it was a tough one. I mean, we saw at Kolkata, I think the matchup again was off-spin to their top three. Ahmedabad, the wicket, the mixed soil, usually there's no spin. There's always a little bit of bounce. I think bowling my overs, Axar’s and Chakravarty’s, there was no real spin at any stage. So I think whichever way you go, I think there was potentially a bit of bounce for the seamers, but I think at the end of the day, it's an execution, whoever is bowling. I think when you bowl nice areas for a period of time, you could get an out of overs. I think that was the main thing. It wasn't trying to get wickets at the time; it was how you'd be defensive to be attacking. I think when we did that well, we were able to squeeze, I think, a period of four overs. And they lost four wickets. But outside of that, it was a few runs," said Santner.
This was New Zealand's fifth straight ICC white-ball event final loss and the second consecutive one against India.