Mar 09, Kathmandu - New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner has said that despite his team losing the final, there were many positives to be gained from their ICC Men's T20 World Cup campaign. New Zealand, who stunned South Africa in the semi-finals to reach the final, were beaten badly by co-hosts India in the final.

This is the second time New Zealand have lost in the final of the T20 World Cup this decade. The team previously lost to Australia in the final of the 2021 edition. New Zealand also finished as runners-up in the ICC Champions Trophy last year.

According to Santner, reaching consecutive finals shows that the team is moving towards winning a major trophy. "Losing the semi-finals and the final is not ideal, but getting this far shows that we are playing very good cricket. We have to face good teams in the final," Santner said.

He said that losing wickets in the power play was a big problem for the team when chasing a target of 250 in the final. "The power play became the main story of the game. We lost three wickets for about 40 runs, while India reached about 90 runs without a wicket," he said.