New Zealand crush India in ICC World Test Championship 2021 final by 8 wickets

NZ
New Zealand players celebrate with their ICC Test Championship mace on Thursday in Southampton

It was their third appearance in an ICC tournament final in last six years and following two heartbreaks with the most recent one being toughest to digest, New Zealand faced a race against time if they were to pull off a favourable outcome against India in the final of the ICC World Test Championship 2021 on Thursday. 

The Kiwis were tasked with a tough challenge but not an impossible one. If they were to lift the ICC Test Mace at the end of the day Thursday, all that New Zealand had to do was to work over the remaining eight Indian wickets and knock off whatever target their opponents would end up setting. 

And New Zealand went about their demolition job of India as if they have been doing this everyday for a while now. 

In the end, New Zealand team collected the hefty prize money as the winners of the inaugural ICC World Test Championship while consolidating their standing as the world’s top ranked team. 

It all began with India losing their overnight and most important batsmen in their team without them troubling the scorers much. Kyle Jamieson handed New Zealand the upper hand early on the sixth and final day of the Test by removing Virat Kohli (13) and Cheteshwar Pujara (15) in a space of about 10 balls, and the rest of the Indian batting line-up went down without much resistance. 

India’s wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant did show some intent by trying to produce a counter-attacking innings, but the explosive batsman was only left frustrated by the discipline in line and lengths of the New Zealand bowlers. 

In their second innings, India were bowled out for 170 after resuming the day’s play at 64/2, thus setting small target of 139 for the Kiwis to win. 

The leading wicket-taker of the tournament, Ravichandran Ashwin did remove both the New Zealand openers, Tom Latham and Devon Conway, after they made a strong start but the pair of Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor formed a strong partnership for the third wicket which shut the doors of any comeback from India. 

Williamson cracked eight fours to score 52 not out from 89 balls and his senior pro, Taylor, was unbeaten on 47 but had the opportunity of hitting the winning runs for the Kiwis as they finally ended the long and agonising wait of an ICC trophy after being one of the best teams in the world for many, many years. 

While New Zealand will return home as a proud team having beaten England and India on this English sojourn, the Indian team will be left to lick their wounds and prepare themselves for a five-match Test series against England which starts in early August. 

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