New Zealand defeated India by 8 wickets in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC 2021 Final) which was played at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton and became the first-ever ICC World Test Champions.
This accolade suits them to the tee being the no.1 ranked Test team in ICC rankings and they managed to eke out a result from a Test match that lost two whole days to rain and had multiple interruptions due to both rain and bad light.
Resuming their innings on day 6 of the WTC 2021 Final from 64/2, India soon lost both overnight batsman in Virat Kohli (13) and Cheteshwar Pujara (15) to Kyle Jamieson. After them, only Rishabh Pant managed to make 41 runs as none of the other batsmen crossed 20 runs.
India managed to put on just 170 on the board and set New Zealand a target of 139 runs to win the World Test Championship mace.
Tim Southee picked 4/48 and Trent Boult got 3/39, while Kyle Jamieson finished with 7 wickets in the match and was named the Man of the Final as well.
BJ Watling, who kept wickets in his final Test match, on the final day despite dislocating his finger during the play, ended his international career with the record of most dismissals in Tests by a New Zealand wicketkeeper.
WTC 2021 Final: Kyle Jamieson's dismissals of Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara ensues a meme fest
Though the target was nothing given that they had more than 50 overs to chase them, R Ashwin made life difficult for them by removing both openers Tom Latham (9) and Devon Conway (19).
However, the two warhorses of Blackcaps Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor added 96* runs for the third wicket and took the team home. Williamson made 52* and Taylor remained unbeaten on 47, as New Zealand became the first-ever World Test Champions, by winning the Test by 8 wickets.
The cricket fraternity was elated on New Zealand winning the WTC 2021 final and becoming world Test champions and showered them with praises on Twitter.
Here are some of the tweets:
