India enters World Test Championship final after NZ edges SL in thriller

India on Monday (March 13) booked a spot in the final of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) after New Zealand won a thrilling Test against Sri Lanka off the final ball of the match in Christchurch.

In the final at The Oval in London from June 7, India will face Australia. This is the second successive time that India is in the final of the WTC. Last time, it lost to New Zealand.

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India’s entry into the WTC final was confirmed before the start of the session in the ongoing fourth Test against Australia at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

As the Indian players entered the field for the second session in Ahmedabad, they got the news and there were handshakes between players.

Sri Lanka needed to win the Test series against New Zealand 2-0 to have a chance of qualifying for the WTC final.

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Australia was the first team to secure a WTC final berth after defeating India by nine wickets in the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar series at Indore, leaving the host praying for a favourable result in the first Test between New Zealand and Sri Lanka.

The result in Christchurch took the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar series in Ahmedabad out of the equation as earlier India had to win the contest to secure the WTC final spot.

Australia is sitting atop the WTC table with 68.52 percentage points (PCT). Had Sri Lanka won the Test on Monday and strived for victory in the second match at Wellington, its PCT would have jumped from 53.33 to 61.11 – higher than India’s 60.29 before the start of the fourth Test in Ahmedabad.

In order to take all the scenarios out of the equation, India had to win the Ahmedabad Test – which would have taken its PCT to 62.5 – and retain its second position on the WTC table.

But with New Zealand acing a record chase of 285 runs on Monday, thanks to former captain Kane Williamson’s unbeaten 121, Sri Lanka was left ruing their chances.