New Zealand fast bowler, Neil Wagner on Saturday revealed that the now-retired wicketkeeper BJ Watling will be taking care of the ICC Test Championship mace for the next two weeks. The New Zealand team arrived home on Saturday and now the entire contingent is undergoing a mandatory 14-day mandatory isolation. The WTC final against India was the last match in international cricket for BJ Watling.
As per the quotes in stuff.co.nz., Nel Wagner said, “We shared the mace around on the plane and throughout the whole night while celebrating, everybody had their turn to carry it around and make full use of that. And then on the plane, Ross Taylor got me to hand over the mace to BJ Watling, he’s going to take care of it for the next two weeks in isolation.”
ALSO READ: Nasser Hussain Urges India To Recall Bhuvneshwar Kumar For England Tests
He further elaborated, “I think it’s a fitting way for him to send his career off, it’s been an amazing career for us, the role he’s played for a number of years now, just the whole person he is and heart and soul of the team. He epitomizes everything we are about as a team, the team-first attitude, being a guy that scraps and fights for everything, he’s led that all the way from the start. He’ll be sorely missed in this team.”
Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor played unbeaten knocks off 52 and 47 respectively as Kiwis registered an 8-wicket win over India by eight wickets to clinch the inaugural edition of the WTC final at The Ageas Bowl, Southampton on Wednesday.
Talking about the historic win, Neil Wagner said, “It’s still hard to put into words, to be fair. Everything is socially distanced, so you can’t even really shake their hands, and we had the mace, everyone wanted to take a photo, you can’t even do that, or we couldn’t pass it on. It’s a bit of a shame but it’s part of the world we live in at the moment. I don’t think I’ve ever walked into customs and got greeted the way we did.”
ALSO READ: Sam Billings And Fin Allen Like Insulting Post On Virat Kohli
A complete effort on the Reserve Day resulted in New Zealand registering a win over India in a final. New Zealand made full use of the slender 32-run lead they got in the first innings and the Kiwi bowlers bundled out India cheaply in the second innings to get a target of just 139. The Kiwi batsmen chaise down the target without much trouble.
