July 14th comes back to haunt and the eerie similarity between 2021 & 2024

There were 3 highly anticipated sporting finales which got played out on the 14th of July 2024 viz

Wimbledon Final - Novak Djokovic vs Carlos Alcaraz

Euro Final - England vs Spain

Copa America Final - Argentina vs Columbia 

The day was all set and it was imminently clear that it was going to be a sporting extravaganza of epic proportion and a blockbuster of sorts for the sport loving aficionado.

Sporting clashes have happened across different formats and dates earlier on as well. But what really caught the eye and makes this one Sunday special is because it associates itself to a few incidents of the past which ironically played out in the same intervening period but across different years.

Let's traverse back to the exact day of 14th July, 5 years ago in 2019. That very same day witnessed a Wimbledon final and the ODI World Cup cricket final. On 14th July 2024 also we had the Wimbledon Final but instead of the cricket we had the Euro Football final. The common player/team running across both these days were Novak Djokovic and England. In 2019, Novak Djokovic claimed the Wimbledon title in a match for the ages against Roger Federer and the England cricket team claimed the cricket World Cup final in a super over through boundary count in the final against New Zealand which was heralded as one of the greatest ever ODI matches played. 

Both Novak Djokovic and England appeared again on court in the final in 2024 and a victory for both would have made it extra special and a day to savour for eternity for both Novak Djokovic and England as a sports team but alas it was not to be as Djokovic was swept aside by the marauding young Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz and later on in the evening the England football team were humbled by a mercurial Spanish side. The 14th of July 2019 which bought joy to Novak and the England cricket team bought despair to the same Novak Djokovic and England football team on the 14th of July 2024. It was perceived that Novak almost did the impossible by saving 2 match points on his opponents serve to register a famous victory much to the chagrin of the partisan British crowd who were cheering and egging on Federer to create history in 2019. In a similar vein, it was also felt that the Kiwis were robbed off a World cup title in dubious fashion since the win was awarded to England in controversial circumstances. Both Federer and New Zealand felt dismayed on the 14th of July 2019 but things came back to haunt Novak and England in albeit a different manner by taking defeat off them coincidentally and ironically on the very same date 5 years later. Hence, there were a lot of coincidences and patterns emerging across these 2 dates 5 years apart but the result ended up being completely opposite from one another.

Talking of coincidences, there was one more eerie similarity taking place in 2024 but this time the year in question is related with 2021. The very same 3 sporting events that happened in 2024 also took place in 2021 just 3 days apart on 11th July 2021 and once again there was the common theme of one player/team being weirdly the common link across the 3 major sporting finales. 

Let's take a look at the commonality.

2021 & 2024 Wimbledon Final - Novak Djokovic appeared in both finals

2021 & 2024 Euro Final - England played in both finals 

2021 & 2024 Copa America Final - Argentina took part in both finals

The results however were a mix & match across these 3 years. Novak Djokovic emerged victorious in 2019 but came a cropper in 2024. England football team ensued heartbreak both in 2021 at home and 2024 in Berlin. The Argentinian team emerged triumphant on both occasions beating the home side Brazil in 2021 and winning the finale again in 2024.

Documenting the tale of sporting finales loaded with numerous twists & turns arising across different years resulting in so many weird and varied patterns indeed makes sport so very special and thrilling.

Not Finishing the Job - India's cricketing story in Big Ticket ICC Events

It's not always that you come so close to winning championships. India have no doubt been good enough continuously coming to the final stages of ICC world events, but there is a thing called 'finishing the job' and we have failed at that miserably.

Since the WC win in 2011, the results in ICC events are listed below. After 2013 Champions Trophy, a big ticket victory has eluded India despite coming close on several occasions
2011 WC - Winners
2012 T20 WC - Group Elimination
2013 CT - Winners
2014 T20 WC - Runners-up
2015 WC - Semi finals
2016 T20 WC - Semi finals
2017 CT - Runners-up

We handed the 2014 T20 WC final to Sri Lanka in a platter through a horrendous batting performance by getting an abysmal score of 129 off 20 overs having lost just 3 wickets. Then again in the semi of the T20 WC 2016 vs West Indies where we spilled regulation chances, not doing our basics right and allowing them to chase over 190 preventing us from having a shot at the final at home.

And today's result is the culmination of all disappointment. First it was against Pakistan and more so in an ICC world tournament final. We allowed them to bat first when we should have stocked up and put the runs beyond their wherewithal. Instead we bowled and did that despicably without any planning and leaking runs by the second. And when the batting was expected to come up trumps, we just caved into pressure and fell off even without offering a fight. This will rank as one of the most embarrassing defeats for India.

Sorry, if we are to compare ourselves to the Aussie team of yore, we are just not there. That ruthlessness and killer attitude just didn't come up when especially needed. Personally am extremely disgruntled and no amount of our past ICC tournament wins against Pakistan is going to be of any solace.

As a hard nut Indian cricket fan, defeats hurt but this one is just too personal to swallow 😐.