India secures a spot in the World Test Championship final, Sri Lanka fails to defeat New Zealand,As Sri Lanka lost to New Zealand in the opening test of their two-match series, India automatically advanced to the World Test Championship final.
After Australia became the first team to guarantee their spot in the World Test Championship (WTC) final, the Indian cricket team got the second spot.New Zealand’s victory over Sri Lanka in the first Test at Christchurch led to India’s qualification. The Kiwis successfully surpassed the 285 run goal on Day 5 despite a weather delay. To remain in contention for the WTC final, Sri Lanka needed to defeat New Zealand in both of its Test matches, but they fell short against the home team on Monday.
Kane Williamson hit the winning runs, which helped New Zealand win by just two wickets over Sri Lanka.The final few overs were filled with epic drama as New Zealand lost a tonne of wickets. Williamson, though, overcame his jitters to secure a 1-0 series victory and disqualify Sri Lanka from the WTC championship race.
On the other hand, India was just as busy with their Test match against Australia. On Day 5 of the 4th Test, they played Steve Smith’s team in Ahmedabad.India needed to defeat Australia in order to secure a position in the Test Championship match, although losing or drawing would also be acceptable because Sri Lanka failed to defeat New Zealand in the opening Test.
By day’s end on Day 4, after play had seemingly reached a conclusion in the New Zealand vs. Sri Lanka Test, the rain began to pour. The game, however, was resumed with a minimum of 53 overs and no break promised as the sun began to shine.
Daryl Mitchell also hit a quickfire 81 off 86 balls to help his team surpass Sri Lanka’s total and grab a 1-0 series lead, although Kane Williamson led the Kiwis in scoring with his 27th Test century.
Australia is in first place on the WTC table with 68.52 percent (PCT).
Prior to the commencement of the fourth test in Ahmedabad, Sri Lanka’s PCT would have increased from 53.33 to 61.11 if they had won the Test on Monday and actively pursued victory in the second game at Wellington. This would have been greater than India’s 60.29.
India needed to win the test in Ahmedabad, which would have raised their PCT to 62.5 and kept them in second place on the WTC table, in order to rule out all other possibilities.
But thanks to Kane Williamson’s unbeaten 121 runs as former captain, New Zealand was able to chase down 285 runs on Monday, ruining Sri Lanka’s chances.