New Zealands Test world champions celebrate hard after breaking ICC trophy jinx
Kane Williamson-led New Zealand became Test crickets first official world champion as they defeated India by eight wickets in the inaugural World Test Championship (WCT) final on Wednesday after losing successive one-day finals.
New Zealand have been to the semi-final of the 50-over World Cup eight times and lost the last two finals, in heartbreaking fashion to England on the boundary countback rule after the 2019 decider was tied. Throughout those setbacks, New Zealand have continued to play in a spirit sometimes derided as "nice guy" cricket.
On Wednesday New Zealand finally triumphed in a global final with Williamson unbeaten on 52 after a painstaking 49 in the first innings on a pitch that favored the bowlers throughout with two days lost to rain.
And naturally, the entire Kiwi dressing-room went into celebration mode after Ross Taylor hit the winning runs flicking a Mohammed Shami ball over midwicket for a boundary. He was 47 not out and Williamson was 52 not out, only the second half-century of the final.
"It’s certainly a slightly different feeling being on the right side of the result," Williamson told a news conference.
"The first semi-final was one-sided, the second one was pretty interesting.
"It was the first official world Test championship, that’s a really good feeling. Both teams knew coming into the last day there were three possible results -- win, lose or draw and we saw that things could happen quickly."
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