Indian bowler Ravichandran Ashwin celebrates with teammates after the wicket of Australian batter Matthew Kuhnemann throughout the fifth day of the fourth check cricket match between India and Australia, at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Monday, March 13, 2023.
| Photo Credit: PTI
India on March 13 certified for the distinguished World Test Championship (WTC) final after New Zealand defeated Sri Lanka by two wickets in an exciting last-ball end in the Christchurch sport.
India will play Australia in the WTC final at The Oval from June 7.
This is India’s second successive entry into the WTC final, with the earlier one coming in the inaugural cycle in 2021, the place they misplaced to New Zealand.
With the Dimuth Karunaratne-led aspect’s solely shot on the WTC final berth hinging on a 2-0 victory towards the Kiwis in the away sequence, the loss for the Islanders ended their hopes of securing a spot.
Australia was the primary workforce to secure a WTC final berth after humbling India by 9 wickets in the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar sequence at Indore, leaving the hosts praying for a beneficial outcome in the primary Test between New Zealand and Sri Lanka.
The outcome in Christchurch took the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar sequence in Ahmedabad out of the equation as earlier India needed to win the competition to secure the WTC final spot.
Australia are sitting atop the WTC desk with 68.52 share factors (PCT).
Had Sri Lanka received the Test on March 13 and strived for victory in the second match at Wellington, their PCT would have jumped from 53.33 to 61.11 — larger than India’s 60.29 earlier than the beginning of the fourth Test in Ahmedabad.
In order to take all of the eventualities out of the equation, India needed to win the Ahmedabad Test — which might have taken their PCT to 62.5 — and retain their second place on the WTC desk.
But with New Zealand acing a file chase of 285 runs on March 13, due to former captain Kane Williamson’s unbeaten 121, Sri Lanka had been left ruing their possibilities.
