WELLINGTON: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and the nation’s greatest cricketer Richard Hadlee led the tributes on Thursday after the Black Caps claimed the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) by beating India.

Kane Williamson’s team became Test cricket’s first official world champions after prevailing by eight wickets in Southampton on Wednesday, the reserve day of a match plagued by bad weather.

“The Black Caps have made New Zealand proud. This was a masterful performance from a team at the top of their game and on top of the world,” Ardern said in a statement. “Kane Williamson and the team leadership have built a brilliant and humble squad who have become an inspiration to many New Zealanders.

“Over a number of years now we have seen the development of a team and team culture that has taken New Zea­land cricket to world beating heights.”

New Zealand have been to the semi-final of the 50-over World Cup eight times and lost the last two finals, in heartbreaking fashion to England on the boundary countback rule after the 2019 decider was tied.

Throughout those setbacks, New Zealand have continued to play in a spirit sometimes derided as ‘nice guy’ cricket.

More importantly, they have won all but one match, a draw, in four Test series since a 3-0 drubbing in Australia around the turn of 2020.

Hadlee, one of the greatest fast bowlers in the history of the game, said the New Zealand Test team ‘thoroughly deserved’ the title on the back of their recent form.

“Over the past two years, the Black Caps performances in the Test arena have been outstanding with Test match and series wins at home and abroad,” the 69-year-old said. “The whole team has shown a high degree of professionalism. Their skill sets have complemented each other to make them a complete playing unit. “It’s fair to say that this current group of players is the best in our history.”

The final was screened through the night in New Zealand and bleary-eyed viewers were mindful of the Black Caps’ defeats in the past two one-day World Cup deciders.

New Zealand rugby’s three-time world champions All Blacks said those results, devastating at the time, could now be regarded as ‘just warm-ups for the main event’.

“Congratulations @BLACKCAPS on taking out the grandest prize ever on offer in the history of cricket, the World Test Championship,” the team’s official Twitter feed said. “You dreamed big and made us all proud.”

Many pointed to the huge disparity in financial and playing resources between India and New Zealand.

“It’s a story that’s akin to David versus Goliath but Kane Williamson and his team are now World Test Champions and living proof that sometimes, just sometimes, nice guys do finish first,” former Test cricketer-turned-commentator Simon Doull said.

ndian cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar said New Zealand deserved their victory.

“Congrats @BLACKCAPS on winning the #WTC21. You were the superior team,” Tendulkar wrote on Twitter.

Former India batting stalwart V.V.S. Laxman agreed.

“Congratulations @BLACKCAPS on being deserving champions,” he tweeted. “NZ bowlers were terrific, Williamson and Taylor brought in their experience to finish the job.”

Another ex-New Zealand player, Mark Richardson, highlighted the conscious decision to avoid ‘the boorish and despicable manner Australia played in when they were at their most dominant’.

“They play hard and they get stuck in but I think they’re trying to bring back that whole gentleman’s game side of it that cricket used to have a long time ago,” he told TV3.

News website Stuff.co.nz cricket writer Mark Geenty labelled the New Zealander ‘giant slayers’, singling out paceman Kyle Jamieson as an emerging star after a player-of-the-match performance.

“Jamieson was the dominant individual at Southampton, snaring match figures of 7-61 including the prized wicket of Kohli in both innings,” he wrote. “Sixteen months after making his debut against India at Wellington, Jamieson has 46 wickets from eight Tests at the scarcely believable average of 14.”

Others noted how fitting it was that Williamson and veteran batsman Ross Taylor — both key figures in New Zealand’s rise — were in the middle when the winning runs were scored.

Amid the joy, Australian cricket captain Tim Paine was trending on New Zealand Twitter as the result of his pre-match prediction that India would win ‘pretty comfortably’.

“Has anyone checked on Tim?” Black Caps fan Benji Crossley tweeted. “I’m here for the pettiness today.”

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2021