Team India, on Wednesday, was completely outplayed by New Zealand as the latter won the final of the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) comfortably by 8 wickets at The Ageas Bowl in Southampton.

Former Indian pacer and 1983 World Cup winner Madan Lal lauded Kane Williamson and Co. for their fantastic performance but also said that the match could’ve ended in a draw had the Indian batsmen occupied the crease for a little bit longer.

“New Zealand was the deserving team and their captain deserves a lot of credit. The way they got our batsmen out and their field placements, I feel that (Kane Williamson's) captaincy was top class,” Lal told Aaj Tak.

“It is disappointing, it's not that India are a bad team. They are actually a very good, balanced team. But our problem away from home has always been that if you don't make runs, it becomes very difficult to win matches,” he added.

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The right-arm quick then talked about how India could have drawn the Test match had the batsmen showed some intent.

“Today the disappointment is that we were all thinking that the match could be drawn. But none of the batsmen showed the temperament for that and if they stayed there for one or two hours more, this match could have been a draw,” the 70-year-old said.

The New Zealand pacers were absolutely brilliant as they bowled India out for just 170 runs in the second innings and made the most of their slender 32-run lead.

With all-rounder, Kyle Jamieson removing Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara in the first hour of Day 6 turned out to be the turning point of the game and Team India could not get things back in control after that and eventually suffered an 8-wicket loss.

(With Aaj Tak Inputs)