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Virat Kohli
After two years of hard work, India lost the World Test Championship title to New Zealand. Indian captain Virat Kohli credited his New Zealand counterpart Kane Williamson for leading the Kiwis to success. He also attributed India’s loss to delays and halts due to rain.
The match was evenly balanced before the start of the game on Wednesday at Southampton. It was the reserve day match to make up for the washouts of Day 1 and 4. However, the excellent tactics of New Zealand bowlers caught Indian batsmen off guard. The Indian team could put only 139 runs target on board for New Zealand.
New Zealand comfortably chased the target with eight wickets and seven overs to spare. Thereby, the Kiwis became the inaugural champions of WTC. Moreover, New Zealand won their first-ever ICC trophy in 21 years under the captaincy of Kane Williamson.
In a post-match conference, Virat Kohli congratulated Kane Williamson and his team. He stated that the Kiwis have shown good consistency on the field during the title match. They pulled off a good result in just three days. New Zealand created good pressure on the Indian team and deserved the victory.
India might have made more runs without the rain halts: Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli opined that rain halts and delays factored in to impact the performance of the Indian team. But he also added that the disciplined way in which New played also pushed India into the corner. Hereby, India fell almost 40 runs short of a competitive total.
After the first day got washed out, it was difficult to get momentum on Day 2. India lost only three wickets for 146 and would have got more runs on board if the play had not stopped due to bad light. But the main difference was made on Day 6 when Kiwi bowlers did not allow them to make any runs. It restricted the team to a low total and almost 40 runs short of a good target. Thereby, the Kiwis could register a comfortable win.
The World Test Championship is a good idea to promote Test cricket among the fans. It is a good move by the ICC to make red-ball cricket more exciting and get the youth interested in the game.