The Kane Williamson-led New Zealand side became the first-ever Test world champions by defeating India in the WTC 2021 Final at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton on June 23, 2021. The Blackcaps won the one-off World Test Championship (WTC) final by 8 wickets.
The Test match marred by rain and bad light seemed to meander towards a draw, but New Zealand bowlers, mainly Kyle Jamieson starred with the ball, and Devon Conway and Kane Williamson starred with the bat as the underdogs finally won an ICC event after 2 decades.
India was bowled out for 217 in their first innings thanks to Kyle Jamieson picking 5/31. In reply, New Zealand posted 249 runs with Devon Conway scoring a half-century. This slim lead of 32 was possible due to Jamieson making 21 and Tim Southee contributing 30 runs with the bat.
In the second innings, Tim Southee removed both India openers Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma on day 5 itself and Jamieson struck once again, getting rid of Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara early on day 6.
After that, it was a matter of time before the India team folded for just 170 runs with Rishabh Pant top-scoring with 41. Southee picked 4 wickets, while Trent Boult took 3 scalps.
WTC 2021 Final: WATCH - New Zealand's ecstatic dressing room after Ross Taylor hits the winning runs
In their chase of 139 runs, New Zealand lost Conway and Latham to Ashwin, but the top dogs of NZ batting Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor added 96* runs to ensure their dressing room went crazy when Taylor hit the winning runs and made New Zealand the first-ever Test Champions.
Not only the Kiwi dressing room but the New Zealand cricket fraternity was elated with joy and took to Twitter to shower their team with love.
Here are some of the tweets:
