New Zealand trounce India to win inaugural World Test Championship
24 June, 2021
New Zealand enjoyed the best triumph within their cricket history because they beat India by eight wickets in the inaugural World Test Championship final at Southampton on Wednesday.
2 yrs after their agonising Super Over loss to England in the 50-over World Cup final at Lord's, the Blackcaps claimed their first major global title.
Set a modest target of 139 in 53 overs, New Zealand finished on 140-2 as time passes to spare in a match extended right into a reserve sixth day following two days lost to rain.
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin reduced New Zealand to 44-2 by detatching openers Tom Latham and Devon Conway to the delight of India fans.
But New Zealand captain Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor, the team's most-experienced batsmen, settled any lingering nerves within an unbroken stand of 96.
Williamson, who won plaudits for the sporting way he dealt with defeat in the 2019 World Cup final, was 52 not out. It was only the second fifty of the match after New Zealand opener Devon Conway's first-innings effort and followed Williamson's first-innings 49.
Taylor, who hit the winning boundary, was unbeaten on 47.
India's last hope of turning the tide evaporated when, with New Zealand 55 runs shy of victory at 84-2, Cheteshwar Pujara dropped a regulation slip catch off the luckless Jasprit Bumrah to reprieve Taylor on 26.
Taylor ended the match when he whipped Mohammed Shami off his pads for four.
- 'Great heart' -
"It's a very special feeling," said Williamson at the presentation ceremony as he paid tribute to a "formidable" India side.
"It had been just great the heart that our team showed to get over the line in that which was a brilliant Test.
"We realize we don't will have the stars -- we depend on a few other equipment to try and stay in games and become competitive and I think we saw that in this match."
In a match in which bowlers held sway, New Zealand's all-pace attack did most damage Wednesday by dismissing India for 170 within their second innings as blue skies provided the very best batting conditions of the game.
Tim Southee took 4-48 in 19 overs, with longtime new-ball partner Trent Boult striking twice within an over during his 3-39.
The towering Kyle Jamieson, named player of the match, followed his first-innings 5-31 by snaring India captain Virat Kohli again during a miserly 2-30 in 24 overs.
"We did effectively with the ball in the first innings to pull things back nicely but today was the difference, where in fact the Kiwi bowlers really executed their plans to perfection," said Kohli, whose side face England in a five-Test series starting in August.
New Zealand could have confronted a straight smaller target had Rishabh Pant not been dropped on five during his innings of 41.
Few cricket lovers would begrudge New Zealand, a country with a population of around five million weighed against cricket powerhouse's India's 1.3 billion, their success.
They entered your final worth $1.6 million to the winners, hardened by a recently available 1-0 series win in England, while India were playing their first Test since March.
The reserve day, the 1st time a Test has truly gone right into a sixth day since the 2005 Super Series in Australia, was deployed in the hope a two-year effort to crown red-ball cricket's first official world champions would end with an outright winner.
India resumed on 64-2, with key batsman Kohli adding just five runs to his overnight eight when he again fell to Royal Challengers Bangalore team-mate Jamieson, edging to BJ Watling in the wicketkeeper's final match before retirement.
India's 71-3 became 72-4 when Pujara edged Jamieson low to a diving Taylor initially slip.
In came Pant, whose batting heroics helped India achieve a impressive come-from-behind series win in Australia earlier this season.
But the wicketkeeper must have been out soon afterwards when he edged Jamieson, only for Southee to drop a routine slip chance.
Pant eventually fell when his skied edge off left-armer Boult was brilliantly caught by Henry Nicholls, running back from point.
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