New Zealand beat India by eight wickets to win the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) title at the Ageas Bowl on Wednesday.
The weather-disrupted final marked the culmination of a two-year cycle of the WTC, which was launched in 2019 to create test cricket’s pinnacle event.
Two years on from their agonising Super Over loss to England in the 50-over World Cup final at Lord’s, the Blackcaps claimed their first major global title.
Chasing 139 for victory in a low-scoring match, New Zealand romped home in the final session of the reserve day, which was activated to make up for lost time in the first five days.
Captain Kane Williamson was unbeaten on 52 and Ross Taylor on 47 as New Zealand became test cricket’s first official world champions.
Their all-seam attack set up the victory by bowling out India for 217 and 170 in the game which lost two full days to rain.
New Zealand lost in the finals of the last two 50-overs World Cups.
The reserve day, the first time a Test has gone into a sixth day since the 2005 Super Series in Australia, was deployed in the hope a two-year effort to crown red-ball cricket’s first official world champions would end with an outright winner.
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