WATCH: Imran Khan lauds New Zealand for defeating "a country of 1.3 billion people" India in WTC 2021 final

New Zealand won the ICC World Test Championship final on the reserve day.

By - 02 Jul, 2021

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has praised New Zealand, a country with a population of 5 million people for beating India, a country with 1.3 billion people in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final, which they won by 8 wickets at the Ageas Bowl, Southampton.

The WTC final went to the reserve day after rain washed out two days of the match. Indian batting line-up failed against a quality Kiwi bowling attack and they could manage only 170 runs in the second innings, which took their lead to 138.

The target of 139 turned out to be easy for New Zealand despite a couple of early blows. Kane Williamson, the captain led the chase with an unbeaten half-century, as NZ won their second ICC championship after 21 years.

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Imran also talked about China's growth in sports and how their institutionalization helps them become an emerging power in sport over the years and amongst the top ten in Olympic medal winners.

Speaking to Chinese journalists as Beijing marked the centenary of the ruling Communist Party, Khan said: "I watched on television of course the Olympics in China and if you see their performance in the past 30 years, institutionalization has helped China become an emerging power in sport as well.

"A small country like New Zealand, of 5 million people, just won the cricket world championship from India which has 1.3 billion people. A country of 5 million people has actually won a championship against them because they have a very good system of bringing up talent and polishing it.

So, countries which clearly have institutionalized better, they move upwards because the system of polishing the talent in the country is better."

India and New Zealand had qualified for the WTC final after finishing in the top two of the WTC points table. Pakistan finished at the number six spot in the WTC points table with a point percentage of only 43.3%.

By - 02 Jul, 2021

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