• Sportzyverse
• Cricket news, OTD event
• 03/13/2024
• 0 Comments

Today marked the day in the history book of cricket when New Zealand crushed Sri Lanka’s hopes of making it to the WTC Final.  Kane Williamson emerged as a hero hitting a century.

It was on this day, a year back, that Sri Lanka was sidelined by the black caps from entering into the World Test Championship final. Tim Southee led New Zealand defeated Dimuth Karunrathne’s Sri Lanka in the last over achieving the target of 285 runs and gained a 1-0 lead in the two-match test series.

In the splendid match held at Christchurch, Sri Lanka chose to bat first and set a tough target of 355 runs. In the beginning, Daryl Mitchell and Matt Henry gave momentum to the match by securing a half-century. Soon New Zealand was halted by rain, reducing their available overs by 37, thus requiring them to pursue 257 runs in 53 overs.

Thereafter the right-handed batsman, Kane Williamson stepped into the field. In this fiery clash against Sri Lanka, he made it to his 27th test century. “2 overs and 15 runs”, a dramatic finish set for New Zealand made the audience bite their nails, chatter, and predict the climax.

The Dramatic End

Williamson with an awe-inspiring spirit, scored four off the fourth ball in the final over. And to the twist, in the final ball of the match, when NZ needed 1 run off 1 ball, Asitha Fernando bowled a short delivery, Williamson missed it but still ran to get the run.

The keeper dropped the shot but Fernando receiving the ball again, threw it to the non-striker’s end and bashed the stump. Being aware of the throw, Williamson took the dive passing the ultimate decision into the hands of the third umpire. After a successful replay on the big screen, to his rejoicing, Williamson had managed to beat the ball by an inch or two. This thrilling end, made Sri Lanka lose the match by 2 wickets making the way clear for India to enter the finals.