SOUTHAMPTON (Reuters): New Zealand Captain Kane Williamson expressed both relief and satisfaction after his team defeated India by eight wickets in the inaugural World Test Championship (WCT) final on Wednesday after losing successive one-day finals.

Australia thrashed the New Zealanders at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 2015 after they had finally qualified for a final after losing six semis.

Two years ago they lost to England in an agonising finish at Lords because they had hit fewer boundaries after the teams were tied after both 50 overs and the subsequent super over. On Wednesday New Zealand finally triumphed in a global final with Williamson unbeaten on 52 after a painstaking 49 in the first innings on a pitch which favoured the bowlers throughout with two days lost to rain.

“It’s certainly a slightly different feeling being on the right side of the result,” 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.” 

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