Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) head coach Abhishek Nayar would be all smiles on Wednesday night after what Finn Allen and Tim Seifert showed intent and statement in equal measure during New Zealand’s roaring entry in the final of the T20 World Cup 2026 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Such was the dominance from the New Zealand opening duo that the Kiwis chased down target in just 12.5 overs in reply to South Africa’s 169/8.
Coming into the first semifinal against South Africa on the back of not so good tournament so far, both Allen and Siefert peaked at the right time with utter dominance as the pair laid the foundation for a commendable win with a 117-run stand in just 9.1 overs. While Siefert was dismissed for 58, Allen went on to rewrite history books with a 33-ball hundred, thus breaking Chris Gayle’s record of fastest hundred in T20 World Cup history.
The KKR reference came from that fact that both Allen and Siefert were absolute steals by the three-time IPL champions during the mini-player of auction in December last year in Abu Dhabi. While KKR management got Allen for ₹2 crore, Seifert came at ₹1.50 crore. KKR play all their home games at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
In fact, the Allen-Siefert duo also recorded the highest partnership aggregate in a single edition of the T20 World Cup history, surpassing 446 runs by Afghanistan’s Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmanullah Gurbaz in 2024. With a match still to go, Allen and Seifert have accumulated 446 runs so far.
Both Allen and Siefert are in the top five in the list of most runs in this edition. While Allen is at 289 runs, Seifert has so far scored 274 runs. The highlight of Allen’s knock was his strike rate of 303.03.
Will Finn Allen, Tim Siefert open for KKR?
Honestly, KKR are spoiled for choices as far as their opening combination is concerned. With both can keep wickets, it is certain one among the two will open the innings with Sunil Narine at the top. However, it will be really tough to feature both Allen and Seifert in the playing XI.
After Andre Russell’s retirement, KKR would slot in Rovman Powell as a power-hitter in the middle-order. They would also want Australian all-rounder Cameron Green to bat at the top half of the line-up and add up to the third-seamer’s role.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) squad for IPL 2026
Ajinkya Rahane, Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Varun Chakravarthy, Ramandeep Singh, Ankul Roy, Rovman Powell, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik, Cameron Green, Matheesha Pathirana, Tejasvi Singh, Finn Allen, Tim Seifert, Rahul Tripathi, Kartik Tyagi, Daksh Kamra, Sarthak Ranjan, Prashant Solanki, Akash Deep, Rachin Ravindra.
