An epic 202 not out by Justin Greaves and a stubborn support role by Kemar Roach saw the West Indies salvage a valiant draw in the first Test against New Zealand in Christchurch on Saturday.

Set a colossal target of 531, 113 more than the current record for a successful fourth-innings chase, the West Indies were 457-6 at the end, the second-highest Test fourth innings.

Greaves battled for almost 10 hours and faced 388 deliveries, bringing up his maiden double century in the penultimate over.

Roach was unbeaten on his Test best of 58 which included facing 72 dot balls when he was on 53. The pair put on a gutsy 180 for the seventh wicket.

“Kemar, the senior pro, guided me all the way,” said man-of-the-match Greaves. “Coach told me once you get in, stay in. To be a part of history is exciting, but for me, it’s one day at a time.

“For us, it was just about getting into the last session.”

Given the magnitude of the chase, the West Indies saw the draw as a win while New Zealand felt they had lost.

“I’d say it feels like a win. The guys are proud,” West Indies captain Roston Chase said, adding they felt they the game was theirs going into the final session.

“But it didn’t quite work out that way that they (Greaves and Roach) wanted so when it came to the last hour we had a discussion and they said they would just play it out.”

However, the mood was not buoyant in the New Zealand camp.

“When you have a draw in that fashion where you know you’re so close to winning it does have that (losing) feeling,” captain Tom Latham said.

A draw seemed a distant prospect for the tourists when the top order failed to fire yet again and they slumped to 72-4.

But New Zealand were down on fire power as injuries to Matt Henry and Nathan Smith reduced their pace attack in the second innings to just Jacob Duffy and Zak Foulkes. Both were playing only their second Test.

The placid pitch was also of little assistance to the spinners, allowing Shai Hope and Greaves to cash in for the fifth wicket amassing 196 runs in a 64-over stand.

The West Indies resumed the final day at 212-4 with a confident Hope and Greaves adding 23 in six overs of spin before blunting the new-ball attack for more than 12 overs, before Hope was dismissed for 140.

A short ball from Duffy outside the leg stump tempted Hope to hook but the ball climbed, grazed the glove and a diving Tom Latham took a stunning one-handed catch to complete the dismissal.

Tevin Imlach came and went quickly, lbw to Foulkes for four, and New Zealand felt the initiative had swung their way again with the West Indies 277-6.

But when Roach joined Greaves the pendulum swung back the other way as West Indies reached 399-6 at tea, needing a further 132 with four wickets remaining if they were to achieve a historic victory in the final session.

Luck was with Roach, who received five lives. He was dropped on 30 and 47 and survived a run-out when the throw went wide of the stumps.

He was given not out to an lbw appeal and again for a caught behind, both off Michael Bracewell, when television replays showed he was out both times.

Duffy was New Zealand’s most successful bowler with 3-122 to go with his five wickets in the first Test. The second Test starts in Wellington on Wednesday.

The 2026 World Cup will kick off on June 11 with joint-hosts Mexico playing South Africa at the Azteca Stadium — venue of the 1970 and 1986 finals — followed by South Korea against a playoff winner after the draw was made on Friday.

South Africa are appearing for the first time since 2010, when they drew with Mexico in the opening match but failed to reach the knockout stage.

Fellow hosts the United States and Canada will join the party the next day, against Paraguay and a playoff winner — possibly Italy — respectively in Los Angeles and Toronto.

Defending champions Argentina were grouped with Algeria, Austria and Jordan, while five-times winners Brazil will play Morocco — semi-finalists in 2022 — Haiti and Scotland.

The Scots are appearing in the finals for the first time since 1998, when they lost to Brazil in the opening game.

France’s first game will be against Senegal in a repeat of one of the biggest tournament upsets, when the Africans stunned the then-holders in their first game of the 2002 tournament.

England will start against Croatia, who beat them in the 2018 semi-finals, and also face Panama, who they beat 6-1 in the group stage in the same tournament.

The teams outside the hosts’ groups will have to wait until Saturday to find out the venues and kickoff times for their games after FIFA attempts to optimise venues and kickoff times relating to the various worldwide TV markets.

A newly introduced seeding system ensures that the current top four in the world — Spain, holders Argentina, 2022 runners-up France and England — cannot meet until the semi-final stage if they win their groups.

The 48 teams — including six still-to-be-decided playoff winners — were divided into 12 groups of four to produce a mammoth 104-match schedule across 16 cities in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, culminating in the final in New Jersey on July 19.

Venues and kickoff times will be announced in another globally broadcast event on Saturday, though even that is subject to adjustment in March once the six playoff qualification spots have been filled.

US President Donald Trump said he was not attending the draw for the 2026 World Cup to receive a prize, but he got one anyway.

Trump, who has campaigned aggressively this year for a Nobel Peace Prize, was given FIFA’s inaugural peace prize for his efforts to promote dialogue and de-escalation in some of the world’s hotspots.

Amid TV cameras and flashbulbs from the international press, Trump dominated the scene at Washington’s Kennedy Center on Friday, placing himself squarely at the center of one of the biggest events in the sporting world.

The United States, along with Canada and Mexico, will host the soccer tournament next year. The prime minister of Canada, Mark Carney, and the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, were there, too, but it was all Trump’s show.

“This will be unique, this will be stellar, this will be spectacular,” Gianni Infantino, the gregarious president of FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, said at the opening of the ceremony, talking about next year’s games.

But he could have been talking about the Kennedy Center event itself, which was located in Washington at Trump’s urging.

Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli sang “Nessun Dorma,” a favorite of Trump’s and a staple at his campaign rallies, to launch the proceedings.

“Nobody ever thought a thing like this could happen,” Trump said before proceedings got under way, omitting the fact that the United States hosted the World Cup in 1994.

Last month, FIFA announced that a new annual award called the FIFA Peace Prize would be presented at the draw to “reward individuals who have taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace.”

A video prior to the presentation celebrated Trump for resolving the war in Gaza and trying to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. The trophy, a gold-plated globe carried by upraised hands, was considerably larger than the Nobel, which is just a simple medal.

But Trump got a medal as well and donned it as Infantino lauded him. The president deserved the award for “promoting peace and unity around the world,” Infantino said.

Trump called the award “an awfully nice tribute to you and the game of football, or as we call it, soccer.”

He took a moment to congratulate himself. America, he said, was “not doing too well” before he took office.

“Now, I have to say, we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world,” Trump said.

Trump received the award the same week his administration froze immigration applications from 19 countries after last week’s shooting of two National Guard members in Washington.

It also came days after the president demeaned Somali immigrants in the United States as “garbage” — sparking an outcry both at home and abroad.

Earlier, Trump told reporters he did not care about the prize, but noted that he had “settled eight wars” in his 10 months in office.

“I don’t need prizes. I need to save lives,” Trump said. “I saved millions and millions of lives, and that’s really what I want to do.”