New Zealand Wins the First World Test Championship
New Zealand beat India in the final of the World Test Championship to become the first-ever World Test Champions.
The final of the World test Championship was held between India and New Zealand in Southampton, England from 18th June to 22nd June with a reserve day on 23rd June. Due to rain the match went on to the reserve day.
New Zealand had won the toss and asked India to bat. In the first inning, India managed to score 217. While New Zealand’s first inning, they were in trouble at 135/5 but Williamson’s key contributions helped them score 249 and take a 32-run lead. In the second innings India were bowled out for 170. Having a total of 387 - 217 from the first inning and 170 from the second inning, India were in the lead with 138 runs. New Zealand had already scored 249 in the first inning and to win they had a target of 139. It was a cake-walk for New Zealand and they scored 140 runs with 43 balls remaining and beat India by 8 wickets to become the first-ever World Test Championship winners. After being in the finals of the ODI World Cups in 2015 and 2019, New Zealand finally won under the leadership of Kane Williamson. When Ross Taylor hit the winning runs, the entire Kiwi dressing-room went into celebration mode. ICC also uploaded a video of the same, where the New Zealand players are seen celebrating, and then lifting the trophy. After the heavy defeat, Indian skipper Virat Kohli said that the best Test team can’t be decided with just one match, and it should be a best of three contest.
Meanwhile some funny incidents happened during the match. On the fifth day, Jasprit Bumrah wore the wrong jersey. He bowled the entire first over with the wrong jersey and thereafter rushed to change it. Another incident was a picture of Mohammed Shami fielding with a towel wrapped over his jersey. The image has now gone viral and has also prompted people to come up with hilarious memes.
