India have lost to New Zealand in the inaugural edition of the World Test Championship final. While their batting and bowling unit failed to step up, barring a few players, they dropped two catches – one of Ross Taylor and the other of New Zealand captain Kane Williamson which made things worse as well, believes former Australia spinner Brad Hogg.
Notably, Cheteshwar Pujara dropped an edge of Taylor at first slip off Jasprit Bumrah at first in the 31st over and then Bumrah did it off Mohammed Shami. And, these two instances cost them the final too as both Taylor and Williamson added 96 runs and sealed the deal for their team as well while chasing 139 runs. Moreover, when Pujara dropped Taylor on the final day, New Zealand still required 55 runs and both the openers were out in quick succession as well.
“A wonderful performance from New Zealand. India had their chances at the back end of the Test match to stay in it and win it. (Cheteshwar) Pujara dropping (Ross) Taylor with 55 runs still needed at that stage proved extremely costly. It was the final day of a final,” Brad Hogg said in a video uploaded on his YouTube channel.
ALSO READ: VVS Laxman Surprised With The Poor Performance Of Jasprit Bumrah
“There was pressure. You had (Henry) Nicholls, Watling was injured. Anything could have happened with the pressure around there. Taylor gone, (Kane) Williamson might have played a rash shot as well, not having that experience up at the other end,” he again shared.
Meanwhile, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson has expressed his happiness and satisfaction after they convincingly defeated India by eight wickets in the inaugural edition of the World Test Championship (WCT) final on Wednesday after losing two 50-over World Cup finals.
ALSO READ: Alastair Cook Predicts The Result Of Five Tests Between England And India
“It’s certainly a slightly different feeling being on the right side of the result,” Kane 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.”
