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Harbhajan Singh
Former Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh said New Zealand was the better-prepared team for the ICC World Test Championship final. The kiwis had already reached England almost a month before India. The team prepared for the historic one-off Test with a series win over England. On the other hand, India hand just played an intra-squad match in preparation.
Harbhajan felt that the Indian cricket team needed to save wickets in the first session of the final day. Indian skipper Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, and vice-captain were all removed in the first session of the reserve day. Harbhajan Singh praised New Zealand's bowling line-up and expressed his disappointment towards team India's performance.
New Zealand is the No.1 Test side in the world
Chasing a low score of 139, NZ skipper Kane Williamson registered his 33rd Test fifty. Kane Williamson scored 52* runs, whereas Ross Taylor remained unbeaten on 47. The experienced batsmen added 96 runs for the third wicket to propel their team to the ICC title victory. New Zealand chased down the target with eight wickets in hand. The winning runs came off Ross Taylor's bat as he flicked a delivery off Mohammed Shami towards deep square leg for a boundary. After suffering heartbreaks in two successive 50-over World Cup finals in 2015 and 2019, New Zealand has finally ended their International Cricket Council (ICC) trophy drought.
With this win, the Black Caps have also obtained massive prize money. The New Zealand cricket team received a whopping $1.6 Million (INR 11.71 Crores) after their victory over India. Apart from the prize money, the Kiwis are also the proud owners of the Test mace. Kane Williamson-led NZ is also the No.1 Test side in the world. On the other hand, Virat Kohli and the team will take home an amount of $800,000 (INR 5.8 Crores) as they finished as the runners-up of the World Test Championship (WTC). Although Indian cricket performed brilliantly throughout the tournament, they blundered in the final match. Earlier, announcing the prize money for the WTC finalists, the ICC had also stated that even the other participants who finished lower in the WTC rankings would get their quota of prize money.