A few days ago, New Zealand had a memorable victory against England by 1 run. This time New Zealand got another great win against Sri Lanka. New Zealand repeated the incident 75 years ago by defeating the Lankans in the last ball of the match.

Hosts New Zealand secured a thrilling 2-wicket victory on the final day of the Christchurch Test on Monday (March 13). Team Southee’s victory was confirmed with the last ball of the match. Kane Williamson left the field to ensure the victory of the team after scoring a great century. In the history of 150 years, the cricket world has seen the event of victory with the last ball of a Test only once before. Even that incident is 75 years old. England won the last Test against South Africa in Durban on 20 December 1948.

For the welfare of New Zealand, the world saw such an event for the second time. But before that, there was no less drama. Kane Williamson is fighting with Neil Wagner. Asito Fernando bowled the last ball of the match at a short length. Williamson could not touch the ball-bat even after pulling. He also ran to take the run. Wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella threw the ball to break the wicket on the strike edge but it failed to break the stumps. Bowler Fernando gets the ball and throws it again to the non-strike edge. Sri Lanka appealed if the wicket was broken. A few nerve-wracking moments followed. However, television replays confirmed that Williamson had reached the non-strike boundary before breaking the wicket. New Zealand floats with the joy of winning the last ball.

Earlier, the fourth day of the Christchurch Test ended with a glimpse of great excitement. Sri Lanka set New Zealand a target of 285 with Angelo Mathews’ brilliant century. New Zealand scored 28 runs after losing 1 wicket at the last minute to bat. On the fifth day, the hosts needed 257 runs to win, and Sri Lanka had 9 wickets. At the beginning of the fifth day, it started raining. The first session ended with the outfield drying up before the start of play. As 37 overs were lost, the day’s play came down to 53 overs. In the era of English baseball, the goal is not impossible, but the risk is also high.

When the game started, however, spinner Prabath Jayasuriya quickly picked up two wickets. When Tom Latham (25) and Henry Nicholls (20) returned, New Zealand was a bit on the back foot. But from there, the turnaround started with the bat of Kane Williamson and Darrell Mitchell. New Zealand knocked Sri Lanka out of the match by a score of 142 runs. Mitchell departed after Fernando scored 81 runs off 86 balls. With that, the Kiwi batters started coming to the wicket. Tim Blundell departed on 238 runs, Mitchell Bracewell on 266 runs, and Tim Southee on 273 runs. New Zealand needed 8 runs off Asito’s last over to win. After taking singles in the first two balls, Henry was run out while taking doubles in the third ball. Then New Zealand needed 5 runs from 3 balls, Sri Lanka 2 wickets. Williamson hit a four off the fourth ball to bring the match to New Zealand. But with the fifth ball dot, New Zealand needed one run to win the last ball. New Zealand cheered after the third umpire’s play on the last ball.