By the end of 17 overs at 117/6, England were far behind the target of 160 runs against New Zealand during the Super 8 clash of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2026. But that was when the momentum shifted, and it started with Rehan Ahmed using his feet and putting Glenn Phillips into the stands for a massive six before Will Jacks contributed. 

England got 22 runs off the over and completed the chase by four wickets with three balls to spare. Rehan Ahmed, after the clash, informed that their head coach, Brendon McCullum, sent a message downstairs to suggest that they play like Virender Sehwag, the former Indian aggressive opening batter.

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“Baz actually sent one of the walkie-talkie messages downstairs, saying ‘tell Reh to bat like Sehwag. Yesterday, in training on a similar wicket, I was trying to play that certain way. I was trying to hit sixes straight because the role I’ll be in the team will be similar to the way I’ve trained for that.” Ahmed said in an interaction.

Rehan Ahmed reveals McCullum’s suggestion to emulate Virender Sehwag in T20 WC 2026 vs NZ

On the other hand, Jacks creamed a dashing knock of unbeaten 32 runs in 18 balls with the help of four boundaries and one six at a strike rate of 177.78, while their partnership of 44 runs off 16 balls got them over the line by four wickets.

“Ideally, I would do nothing because I’m the extra bowler and extra batter. If I didn’t bowl and didn’t bat, that would mean we’d have had that perfect game that we keep speaking about. At the end of the day, no one really cares. We obviously want to play well, but we’re not gutted we haven’t played a perfect game. That’s T20 cricket.” Jacks addressed.

“What we’ve done well is in the key moments, we’ve kept a calm and clear head, and we’ve managed to get those rewards. Having won all three games in the Super 8s now, everyone in that team is on a high.” The spin all-rounder shed light.