New Zealand crowned inaugural World Test Champions
New Zeleand defeated India in the inaugural World Test Championship. The black caps won the the match with 8 wickets. Captain Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor two of of their most experienced players took the black caps home in the historic match. Team India set a target of 139 runs to New Zealand in the final of the ICC World Test Championship. In reply New Zealand lost 2 wickets scoring 140 runs.
Spinner Ravichandran Ashwin gave New Zealand the first two blows. He got Tom Latham stumped by Rishabh Pant. Latham was dismissed after scoring 9 runs off 41 balls. After this Devon Conway was LBW for 19 runs. With this wicket, Ashwin has become the leading bowler with 71 wickets in the World Test Championship. He overtook Australian pacer Pat Cummins.
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson remained not out on 52 and Ross Taylor scored 43 runs. India’s second innings was reduced to 170 runs. Rishabh Pant scored the highest 41 runs for India. Tim Southee took 4 and Trent Boult took three wickets in India’s second innings for New Zealand. New Zealand had scored 249 runs in the first innings. At the same time, India’s first innings was bundled out by the Kiwis for 217 runs. Kyle Jamieson took 5 wickets.
On Wednesday, the last day of the match, Team India started playing ahead of 64 runs for two wickets in the second innings. But the team lost wickets at frequent intervals. Only two batsmen could play an innings of more than 30 runs. Rishabh Pant scored the highest 41 and Rohit Sharma scored 30 runs. From Team India, no player could score a half-century in both the innings. Kyle Jameson dismissed Virat Kohli for the second consecutive innings. Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane scored 15-15 runs. The team lost the last 8 wickets for 99 runs. The entire team was reduced to 170 runs in 73 overs.
Batsmen let down team India
No batsman could score a half-century for Team India in the final. Ajinkya Rahane top scored with 49 runs in the first innings. In the second innings, none of the top-5 batsmen could touch the 40-run mark. On the other hand, three batsmen scored more than 30 runs in the first innings from New Zealand including a fifty. A half-century was also scored in the second innings. Our lower order batsmen failed in both the innings of the final. In the first innings, the last 4 pair added 35 while in the second innings only 28 runs were added. On the other hand, New Zealand’s last 4 pair had added 87 runs in the first innings. This run is more than the runs of our two innings.
