Lord’s dream remains alive for Black Caps At a glance
New Zealand’s captain and coach agree the inaugural World Test Championship format is not ideal, but after their crushing victory over India it may work in their favour as they chase another visit to a Lord’s final.
Captain Kane Williamson’s Black Caps collected 60 vital championship points from their
10-wicket victory over India in Wellington, doubling their tally and moving them up to fifth.
It was India’s first defeat of the WTC after winning their first seven straight to top the table on 360 points, ahead of Australia on 296.
Saturday’s second and final test in Christchurch offers New Zealand the incentive of a sixth straight home series victory, and another
60 points to move past England into third on the WTC table.
The top-two sides meet in the inaugural final in June next year at Lord’s, which will be two years after New Zealand’s World Cup final heartbreak.
New Zealand have eight tests to play in the WTC – six of them at home where they haven’t lost in 12 tests over nearly three years.
Their only away assignment before the June 2021 final is a twotest series in Bangladesh in August. New Zealand’s other WTC scheduled tests are in the next home season: three against West Indies in December followed by two against Pakistan.
On recent form at home the Black Caps could conceivably win all five, collecting a total of 240 points which gives them a strong hope of a top-two finish.
India and Australia, the two favourites to contest the final, meet in four tests across the Tasman next summer. India then host England in five tests while Australia tour South Africa for three, both WTC series.
The longer the series, the fewer points on offer per test. At Hagley Oval the Black Caps and India will play for 60 points, but in the muchawaited December series Australia and India will collect just 30 for every test win.
Williamson said on the eve of this series: ‘‘It’s an interesting one, because there is an element to that which isn’t fair. There is an effort to bring context to test cricket that wasn’t there. The Test Championship is definitely a step in the right direction; not perfect but I’m sure that after the first year or two there will always be efforts to make it a better product.
‘‘Some teams play five [test series], some play two, the different countries . . . there are different parts to it that don’t make the points of equal measure.
‘‘We’ve all signed up to it, we’re all keen to see how it unfolds and I’m sure it will develop over time.’’
New Zealand coach Gary Stead said they weren’t looking past the next test against India in terms of their WTC hopes, but admitted the format could be tweaked.
‘‘I’d expect after this first round you may see some changes in the way the points are distributed. There are still some anomalies.’’
Teams play three home and three away series in the WTC but away wins aren’t worth more points, even though home advantage continues to be a big factor in test results.
India’s skipper Virat Kohli said of the WTC in Wellington: ‘‘It has made test cricket more exciting. I’m sure the games will be intense and teams will go for results rather than settling for draws which is what you want to see with test cricket.
‘‘I think Test Championship, as an ICC tournament, should be right up there. All the other tournaments, for me, start under that. This is going to be the biggest of them all.
‘‘Every team wants to make it to the final at Lord’s and we are not any different. We want those points and make sure that we qualify as early as we can, and be in that frame of mind to hopefully win that.’’