New Zealand's Kane Williamson celebrates with the trophy after winning the final to become the ICC World Test Champions (Reuters) New Zealand won their first ICC title after 21 years beating India in the World Test Championship Final by eight wickets at the Rose Bowl, Southampton on Wednesday. The Kane Williamson-led Champion side lifted the Test mace which was earlier awarded to the No.1 Test side in ICC Test rankings. Along with the mace, New Zealand were awarded a cash prize of 1.6 million US dollars which translates to 11.88 crores approximately.
Despite the loss, Virat Kohli’s men were also awarded prize money of $80,000 for reaching the final of the two-year long tournament. The prize money translates to Rs 5.94 crore approximately.
The prize money is not just limited to the teams reaching the final. As per a statement by ICC, Australia, England and Pakistan will be awarded prize money of $450,000 (Rs 3.8 crore), $350,000 (Rs 2.62 crore) and $200,000 (Rs 1.5 crore) respectively. The rest of the four teams including West Indies, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will also get $100,000 (Rs 75 lakh) each.
The top run-scorer of the two-year-long tournament is Australia’s Marnus Labuschagne who scored 1,675 runs at an average of 72.82 from 13 Tests including five centuries and nine half-centuries. For India, Ajinkya Rahane was the top scorer with 1,159 runs from Tests at an average of 42.92 including three centuries and six half-centuries. For New Zealand, it was Williamson with 918 runs from 10 Tests at an average of 61.20 including two centuries and five half-centuries.
Ravichandran Ashwin dethroned Pat Cummins from the top of the table in the WTC final. Ashwin took four wickets in the Southampton Test including the two wickets on the reserve day that helped him go past Cummins tally. Ashwin bagged 71 wickets from 14 Tests at an average of 20.33 including four five-wicket hauls. He was followed by Cummins with 70 wickets from 14 Tests at an average of 21.02. For New Zealand, Tim Southee was the highest wicket-taker with 56 wickets from 11 Test at an average of 20.82.
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