As it happened - Australia vs New Zealand, Men's T20 World Cup 2021 final, Dubai

And with that, we close off our liver coverage of the World Cup. Plenty of post-match pieces coming up to dissect this win. A lot of those Aussies had a terrible year in this format coming into the World Cup. They go out world champions. That story and a lot more coming your way early hours in Australia. Thanks for joining us! On behalf of Karthik, this is me, Varun, signing off. Have a good night.

There are Australian players rushing onto the field before the ball has gone past the third man boundary! Mitchell Marsh spreads his arms and takes flight. What a moment for him. He's sprinted a long way before falling to his knees trying to process what's just happened. What he's done, rather. A long, emotional hug from Marcus Stoinis follows. He's walking around, looking for his family in the stands as Kane Richardson carries his bat for him. Carry it all! Stunning, stunning innings in a final. Glenn Maxwell, having reverse-swished the last ball for four, is a little more level-headed about it all. But how fitting is it that their best batter in the format takes them home? He is perhaps the only player bar Warner in this format for them who has embraced the new-age, analytically tilted version of T20 cricket. But what does all of that mean anyway if you can win a World Cup the old way? Australia weren't a lot of people's favourites coming into the tournament because of those reasons, but they had game-changers all through that line-up and they stood up in turn, and regularly enough to seal this title.

For New Zealand, heartbreak in a second straight limited-overs final. We speculated at the halfway stage about whether their slow start would cost them. And in the end, the same pattern has played out in the final as in the two semi-finals. Third straight win for a chasing team with at least an over to spare. Third straight win for the team batting second. It was really Williamson fighting a lone battle for New Zealand tonight, and with batting getting easier through the game, his very solid bowling line-up couldn't quite show up.

That is Shane Watson's assessment of this Mitchell Marsh innings. It is certainly going to be a memorable one. We've had all the hallmarks of a Marsh innings tonight - the brute force, the ability to find sixes, and to punish bad balls. It's no secret how highly rated Marsh is in Australian cricket, and he has finally come to the fore in a big match for them; a lot of things had to be put in place for that, not least his batting position. Batting him at 3 is something Australia figured out in the lead up to the tournament, and they gave him consistency there, something he hasn't had in national colours; it's paid off massively.

Australia got a lot of control through Adam Zampa in the middle overs, and tonight's the one night that New Zealand haven't been able to rely on Ish Sodhi for the same. Take a look at this length distribution above - it's a combination of stunning back-foot power play from Australia, and the nerves brought on by that. The pace, the spin, the lengths and the lines - they've all been scattered for Sodhi tonight, and it's an unfortunate end to a pretty good campaign otherwise for him.

Williamson was forced to bring Boult on for his third over - only a wicket would do in the 13th, the way Warner and Marsh were going. Arguably, he's come on a few overs too late because it's rare that you win a T20 match where the opposition needs 8.5 an over in the last eight. But they needed something, and Boult has given them that. Our forecaster still gives Australia a 65% chance though. Will New Zealand bowl him out next over?

Brutal stuff. Warner put the legspinner under pressure early with a flat-bat hit down the ground that beat long-on diving to his right, and with a reverse-sweep for two. Whether because of that pressure or not (what lines and lengths do you bowl if a guy reverse-sweeps, for instance, is a question that could cause a spinner some discomfort), Sodhi ends the over with a couple of not-great balls. Short, and Warner swats it away for four. Then looped up and offering room to free the arms, and Warner launches it for a massive straight six.

Australia are 77 for 1 in nine overs. This could turn very, very, very one-sided if New Zealand don't strike soon.

Williamson brings on his left-arm spinner with the left-handed David Warner still at the crease. Santner responds with a pretty good over, except for one ball that he floats up a little slower and higher than the rest. Mitchell Marsh slog-sweeps it for six.

Nine off that over, and Australia are 60 for 1 in eight.

We've seen how Starc has travelled today, and now New Zealand's fastest bowler, Adam Milne, begins by getting the treatment from Mitchell Marsh in the fourth over. There isn't much room for error in the powerplay, and even less when there's pace onto the bat. One astonishing shot in that over - a pick-up flick for six - but otherwise it was erorrs in line and/or length from Milne.

Aaron Finch steps out, Trent Boult sees him coming, and pulls his length back.

Finch goes hard at a leg-side slog, but the angle and the bounce are against him, and he hits it uppishly. Daryl Mitchell sprints to his left at deep square leg and takes an excellent catch on the slide.

Australia 15 for 1 in 2.3 overs.

Hello again. This is Karthik taking over from Varun once more.

I thought the best shots of Williamson's innings today were two edges to third man.

This was during the 16th over, when Starc bowled left-arm over to Williamson with backward point and third man inside the circle. Williamson threw the kitchen sink at the first two balls, and edged both to the third man boundary.

They were the clearest examples of the kind of risks Williamson was willing to take today: with that angle and that field setting, he knew a thick edge would probably fly for four.

There were plenty of other shots too, better looking and pinging off the middle of his bat, but these were the clearest demonstration of the intent Williamson brought to tonight's game.

The previous highest total in a World Cup final was India's 157 for 5 back in the first edition! Now there's a stat, despite all of T20s advances in 14 years, it seems finals pressure is finals pressure. Sensational recovery from New Zealand after their slow start. The man who wrecked their match first up in the 2015 ODI final went for 60 today in his four overs. Mitchell Starc officially has the worst spell in a final now.

But I wonder if, despite Kane Williamson's blazing innings, New Zealand have gone the same path as Pakistan during their semi-final. Pakistan's lack of aggression early on eventually cost them the match with an over to spare. We mentioned earlier that 180 was the magic number in Dubai - no team has lost having got that many. But a few early wickets will put that to test.

Twice inside a month now, Josh Hazlewood has shown up for his captains. For Chennai Super Kings at the IPL last month, he had figures of 4-0-29-2 in the final. Tonight, he has 4-0-16-3, including the massive wicket of Kane Williamson. He's figured out those cross-seamers and legcutters to perfection in these conditions. Could be the defining spell of the final for Australia tonight.

Those are Starc's three overs so far and they have accounted for more than a third of New Zealand's runs. That's 50 off three overs and he's now only five runs away from holding the record for most expensive spell in a T20 World Cup final. Lasith Malinga, surprisingly, holds the record with 54 conceded against West Indies in 2012.

Only the second time that Zampa went at more than run-a-ball this tournament. He finished the World Cup with figures of 27-0-157-13, an economy rate of 5.81 and took a wicket every 12.4 balls. Barring at least a four-for from Ish Sodhi later on, Zampa will end as the World Cup's most successful spinner after Wanindu Hasaranga (16 wickets in 8 matches).

So New Zealand get slightly better than Pakistan did the other night which was 31 runs off Maxwell and Marsh. New Zealand ony really attacked the last two overs of the fifth bowler here, but it was effective enough for a decent end result. Now to figure out a way to score off Cummins, who's gone for 6 in his 2 overs...

The 11th over for New Zealand, faced mostly by Kane Williamson. It's shown that run-scoring isn't particularly hard at the moment (maybe the conditions have changed by now) and will play a big part towards whatever they end up with. Once again, a Starc over has been taken for plenty.

Fourth ball of the ninth over, and Williamson steps out to Mitchell Marsh, forces an error in line, and slaps him to the cover boundary.

Next ball, like a spinner who's overcompensating for the batter stepping out, Marsh bowls a long-hop, and Williamson pulls him for four more.

New Zealand end the ninth over at 51 for 1. The fifth bowler (Maxwell + Marsh) has gone for 25 in three overs.

Just five runs off the seventh over, bowled by Maxwell to two right-handers. All quiet singles to the deep fielders. No real intent to attack the offspinner. He's now bowled two overs for 14 runs, which is not at all bad considering his first ball was hit for six.

New Zealand are 32 for 1 after the sixth over. Hazlewood has bowled three of the six overs so far, and conceded just 11 runs while taking the wicket of Mitchell.

So far, Hazlewood has been able to hit the pitch just short of a good length, and get the ball to slightly stop on the batters. Williamson has faced seven balls from him so far, and managed only one scoring shot.

Australia have broken the opening partnership. An old-fashioned legcutter from Josh Hazlewood, back of a length, in the corridor. Straightens ever so slightly, and Mitchell, looking to make room and force it through the covers off the back foot, sends a thin edge to the keeper. New Zealand are 28 for 1 in 3.5 overs.

Kane Williamson is in at No. 3, as usual.

Does Aaron Finch dare bowl his offspinner to New Zealand's right-right opening combination? He does. Glenn Maxwell comes on in the third over, and it's a bit of a mixed bag of an over.

He starts from around the wicket, and floats his first ball into Daryl Mitchell's hitting arc. Six.

Then he goes over the wicket, pulls his length back, and does pretty well: 1, dot, 1, 1, 1 leg bye. A bit of turn for him too, and he actually finds Martin Guptill's bottom edge with the third ball of the over, but the deflection is too big for Matthew Wade to be able to catch it.

New Zealand 23 for 0 in three overs.

The six came off the only bad ball of the over, which begs the question, do we sometimes make too much of match-ups? R Ashwin certainly thought so when New Zealand got just one over out of Mitchell Santner in their semi-final against England.

Hello, hello. Varun's gone off for a bit of a breather, and I, Karthik, have taken his place.

Looking at New Zealand's top seven, the thing you're immediately struck by is that they're slated to have five right-handers in a row followed by two left-handers. Should they stick to that order, and make it harder for Australia to bowl Glenn Maxwell in the first half of the innings?

Or should they break up all those right-handers by promoting either James Neesham or Mitchell Santner up the order? It could help them combat Adam Zampa's threat, in theory, though he looked particularly menacing against the left-handers when he took his five-for against Bangladesh earlier in the tournament.

I would guess New Zealand will keep this option open, and take a decision depending on when they lose their first and second wickets and how the pitch is behaving.

There are pretty much no left handers up front for New Zealand, so will Australia be tempted to try Adam Zampa within the powerplay?

Unlikely, as our analyst Gaurav Sundararaman explains in his tactics board for the final.

Martin Guptill is New Zealand's best bet to take on Adam Zampa, and has historically been good against him, scoring 63 off 34 balls against him. Plus, Guptill has poor numbers against left-arm pace: a strike rate of 90.27. So we will see Mitchell Starc go hard at him at the start. Should Australia get him out of the way early though, they might be tempted to bowl Zampa against Williamson. Their head-to-head numbers are heavily in Zampa's favour: 37 runs, 38 balls, 2 dismissals

Australia: 1 David Warner, 2 Aaron Finch (capt.), 3 Mitchell Marsh, 4 Steven Smith, 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Josh Hazlewood

New Zealand: 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Daryll Mitchell, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Tim Seifert (wk), 5 Glenn Phillips, 6 James Neesham, 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Tim Southee, 9 Adam Milne, 10 Trent Boult, 11 Ish Sodhi

Our correspondent Deiva Muthu has been tracking New Zealand from well before they arrived at the World Cup, and he has a pretty good sense of what it took for them to make it here, including bold selection calls and their domestic T20 structure. Here's the start of this piece:

There are reports flying around of an earthquake in the UAE, but it appears there have been no effects at the cricket. Matt Roller reports from the stadium:

'There's been an earthquake in southern Iran this afternoon, with reports of tremors felt in Dubai and Sharjah, but you wouldn't know anything about it at the ground (unless you were sat in a press box filled with Twitter addicts journalists). The stands are still pretty empty but starting to fill up: the vast majority of tickets have been sold but it remains to be seen whether the many Indian and Pakistani fans based in the UAE will turn up for a neutral final.'

I'm sure you all recognise the scorecard from above - the 2015 World Cup final. New Zealand haven't beaten Australia in the knockout stage since 1981! There have been 16 games since that one, and Australia have won all of them. This match below is the last time New Zealand beat Australia in that stage of a limited-overs tournament.