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WTC: Finalists to be decided by percentage points, NZ fancies its chances

In a rare instance, to make sure that the World Test Championship is completed and in its truest form, the International Cricket Council has come up with a plan to decide the two finalists through percentage points. This decision has been arrived at considering that the Pandemic has caused teams to miss out on various series.

The percentage points refer to the percentage of points they have earned from those they have actually contested for. The final decision will be made at ICC's last quarterly meeting of the year, which is scheduled for this Monday.

Another option to decide the finalists was to treat all Tests which the teams couldn’t play as Draws and split points among them. However, it was rejected by the committee members.

This option has given New Zealand a bright chance of making it to the finals of the inaugural championship. The maximum points that New Zealand can get from their home series against Pakistan and West Indies are 240. If that happens, they would end up with 420 points (out of 600 contested) or 70%.

They are currently in the fourth position in the table. Teams ahead of them are Australia, England, and India. For they all play tougher series than New Zealand and not all at home either then getting to 70% would become a bit more difficult. For Australia to go ahead, they would need to win the home series against India comfortably (with less than two losses) to be able to afford two or even three losses in South Africa and still be able to qualify.

For India to be able to qualify, they need to win at least one Test in Australia and rest five against England at home.

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