Ahmedabad, March 8 -- Fiery spells by Axar Patel and Jasprit Bumrah and a dominant show by the top-order of Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan helped Team India make history, becoming the first nation to defend their T20 World Cup title, beating New Zealand by 96 runs at Ahmedabad's Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday.

After NZ opted to put India to bat first after winning the toss, Samson (89 in 46 balls, with five fours and eight sixes), Abhishek Sharma (52 in 21 balls, with six fours and three sixes) and Ishan Kishan (54 in 25 balls, with four boundaries and four sixes) and Shivam Dube (26* in 8 balls, with three fours and two sixes) took India to 255/5.

Later on, despite a fifty from Tim Seifert (52 in 26 balls, with two fou...