Written in the stars - A Maiden Women's ODI World Cup Triumph!

Just as the clock ticked past 12, when Nadine De Klerk drove Deepti Sharma's delivery uppishly with Harmanpreet Kaur leaping backwards and taking a high held catch igniting India's victory sparking off an eruption of joy resulting in unreal celebrations, it felt like a new era in Indian women's cricket had dawned. The Indian Women bleeding blue had done the unthinkable and garnered India a famous World Cup victory on home soil. The pinpoint precision in the timing was simply profound because 78 summers ago just as the time stroked past 12 AM in the wee hours of 15th August 1947 was when our great nation India was christened Independence. The serendipity with respect to the timing couldn't have been more poetic.

Winning a World Cup stands as a monumental historic achievement for any nation. When it occurs at home with the crowds swooning and cheering for you it makes the experience all the more special. Having said that however, losing a World Cup final at home backed by billions of people wanting you to cross over the line and when you end up falling short that pain is the worst heartbreaking feeling ever. Nothing can ever beat the scar of such a defeat as it's absolutely gut wrenching especially disappointing innumerable hearts. We all cried with Rohit & Virat when the 2023 WC final slipped out of our hands. All those commanding nonchalant wins throughout the tourney counted for nothing because at the end the victory was not Team India's. It's just a game at the end of the day but there is a massive difference between winning and coming second especially in a team sport like cricket.

As a cricketing fan, this particular win makes the heart beam with pride and swell with joy. Although not in entirety, it has definitely helped in healing to an extent and exorcising the ghosts of the past. As a young youth, watching the Indian men's team succumb to Australia in the 2003 ODI WC final in South Africa was pretty traumatising. Many would say that it was an all conquering invincible Aussie side but if ever there was a team who could upstage the Aussies it was India. After losing their initial encounter to Australia pretty badly, the team led by Saurav Ganguly played fearless cricket winning all the rest of their matches with relative ease. The Aussies although unbeatable had a few slip ups in games against NZ and Eng where they were under the cosh for much of the time. However come the final, the Aussies were simply unconquerable and showed their prowess by asserting their supremacy. I was waiting with bated breath for that 20 year pain to erase in the home ODI World Cup of 2023 but alas only for it to be accentuated much further. India who looked simply untouchable all through the tournament came a cropper right at the very final in front of a jam packed stadium. It was the most perfect way for their 2 talismans Rohit Sharma & Virat Kohli to go on a high but instead ended up being a nightmare with tears in truckloads as the 2 unassuming legends were not able to take it crying profusely and uncontrollably. That was the most unbearable loss ever in the history of Indian cricket. There was however some redemption the following year with India finally claiming a T20 World Cup victory albeit not at home but in the Caribbean.

When it came to the Women's game, India did reach the finals of the ODI World Cup twice earlier in 2005 and 2017. In the 2005 edition, an inexperienced Indian side was simply blown away by the Aussies. The 2017 defeat however was hard to soak in. After overcoming the indomitable Aussies in the semifinals thanks courtesy to current captain Harmanpreet Kaurs blitz, the Indians blew away a golden opportunity to win their first ever major title. It was an inexplicable collapse of epic proportions as India bottled up the chase with not even 30 required off the last 5 overs and plenty of wickets still in hand. I remember having seen the events playing out and was simply aghast and distraught. India were literally handed the match on a silver leaved platter but they ended up spilling it by choking beyond imagination.

In 2025, with a home World Cup looming large, India's performance in the group stages was patchy to say the least. They had to do some extra heavy lifting to even reach the semifinals. Their opponent yet again was the almighty Aussies who everyone including the hardcore Indian fan knew were simply too strong to contend with and will probably be brushing aside the Indian side with consummate ease. With Aussies putting up a total of over 330 on the board, it looked like a familiar story unfolding only for the Indians to make a remarkable comeback and exercise the greatest chase ever in the history of the women's game. The celebrations after the semifinals were unparalleled. Must admit however that it felt a little overboard considering the job still had to be done with India's final holy grail still lurking. It was drawing parallels to the win over the Kiwis in the men's ODI WC semifinal of 2023 giving an impression of India already holding one hand at the trophy. 

The final had it's moments. India who were inserted to bat first on a belter ended up a wee bit short of 300 on a batting paradise of a pitch at DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. It just looked par for the course with the final nerves playing foul as India looked well on course for a score close to about 350 after having laid the platform. The South Africans too were unrelenting especially with their Captain Architect Laura Wolvaardt leading from the front with a scintillating century backing up with the ton scored in the semifinals. However it felt clearly that the stars and signs were on India's side as regular breakthroughs enabled India to cap off a victory for the ages.

The players apart, it's also a beautiful story of redemption for coach Amol Mazumdar. Amol was once touted to be one of India's future cricketing stars after beginning his Ranji career in stellar fashion with a double century on debut. There is also a famous tale of him sitting with his pads on for 2 days not being able to bat with fellow Mumbaikars Vinod Kambli & Sachin Tendulkar stitching up an awe inspiring partnership of 664 runs in the Harris Shield tournament. Mazumdar like the hallowed yesteryear greats Padmakar Shivalkar and Rajinder Goel never ended up representing India and now to be a part as the coach of the World Cup winning Indian women's team speaks wonders.

It was also lovely to see Sachin Tendulkar in the stands who finally won an ODI World Cup in 2011 in his 6th attempt at his beloved Aamchi Mumbai on that historic night of 2nd April 2011. Another heartfelt moment was watching Rohit Sharma witnessing the Indian team winning the World Cup on home soil. Rohit, the captain of the men's ODI World Cup team of 2023 missed out on the opportunity of capturing a home World Cup with India's campaign coming to an end in an agonising manner with a defeat in the final on this very month 2 years prior dated 19th November 2023. Additionally seeing ex Indian women players who missed out on world cup glory such as Anjum Chopra, Jhulan Goswami and Mithali Raj hold aloft the trophy was truly heartwarming.

One of the greatest signs signalling an Indian victory was the performance of Shafali Varma, the player of the match. She was not even part of the initial squad but an unforeseen accidental injury to their star opener Prathika Rawal resulted in her being added to the squad. In the semifinals she had failed to get going and come the final her place was still in question. At the end, she proved to be the major difference with not only her sterling 87 but also those uncanny 2 wickets which came out of the blue. It was fantasy at it's finest. Another player who was dropped midway through the tournament - Jemimah Rodrigues was the one who played a major role with a sparkling half century to enable India beat NZ to get to the semifinals and then playing one of the greatest knocks ever in the semifinal vs Australia putting India on course to a home World Cup final. Another starlet was the much criticised Deepti Sharma who happens to be the only male or female to secure a half century and take 5 wickets in an ODI World Cup final and to boot ending up with the player of the tournament award. Smriti Mandhana's performance as an opener with crucial knocks also set the pace with her tally being the highest ever in an ODI World Cup by an Indian women. One must also not forget the catch plucked at the 3rd attempt by Amanjot bringing to an end Laura Wolvaardt's brilliant innings thus thwarting the South African crusade. The punchy knocks towards the end by wicket keeper Richa Ghosh also proved to be a key decisive factor in India's crucial victories. Another revelation was young Shree Charani who kept the scoring rate at bay along with chipping in with pivotal breakthroughs. 

The stars also shone brightly on India's side with coincidental similarities to the men's ODI World cup winning side of 2011 with respect to the date, city, Nakshatra in operation and Captain finishing with the final flurry towards the end. Summarising the sameness below:

- Apr 2nd 2011, Mumbai, Uthirattathi (Uttara Bhadrapada) star⭐, India win men's ODI WC at home for the first time. Captain Dhoni secures it with the winning six.

- Nov 2nd 2025, Mumbai, Uthirattathi (Uttara Bhadrapada) star⭐, India win women's ODI WC at home for the first time. Captain Harman claims it with the winning catch.

This victory coming 78 years after India's Independence in 1947, 42 years after Indian men's conquest at the ODI WC of 1983 and 14 years after India's famous ODI world cup victory at home soil in 2011 marks a seismic shift. The 1983 victory paved a revolution with the Indian men's game growing from strength to strength with India being a major cricketing powerhouse in the years that followed. This victory by our Desi girls has the potential to spark off a change of guard and herald a new rise in the women's game by providing hope to generations of youngsters. Have to wait and watch as to how things will eventually transpire but at this point tremendously grateful to these girls for providing us a night to remember in rejoicing this vicarious victory and making every Indian extremely proud with this epoch making performance for the ages.

Cosmic Connections surrounding India's Champions Trophy 2025 victory

India's victory over New Zealand in the final of the Champions Trophy 2025 final has given the nation much to rejoice and cherish. It was a fantastic win and India's brand of white ball cricket has certainly been top notch and of the highest order. Their fantastic streak in the white ball game just keeps extending from strength to strength. They have now won 2 major championships within a span of 9 months, first with the marvellous victory in the T20 World Cup 2024 in June 2024 which came after a period of 11 years without a global trophy followed by this scintillating win in the Champions Trophy 2025 in March 2025. The only blemish was the unfortunate defeat at the hands of Australia in the home ODI World Cup of 2023. Taking all these events in unison, India has lost just one match across these 3 editions comprising of ODI World Cup, T20 World Cup and the Champions Trophy.

India also becomes the first side to win the Champions Trophy 3 times. They also attained a unique record by winning all their matches in this edition despite losing the toss every single time which is indeed quite a rare feat. The Indian men's team now has a tally of 7 global ICC cricket tournament victories with 3 CTs, 2 ODI WCs and 2 T20 WCs to boot. Rohit Sharma has now successfully led India to 2 major titles only being behind MS Dhoni who won India 3 titles by claiming a T20 WC, ODI WC and a CT. The other captains to have led India to world titles include Kapil Dev who won India's inaugural ODI World Cup 1983 and Saurav Ganguly who helped India win the Champions Trophy in a shared encounter with Sri Lanka in 2002.

This Champions Trophy victory however didn't come in to be so easy. There were lot of hoodoo's and strange incidents playing against India while taking the field for the final. India's final record in global events especially when held on a Sunday hasn't been a rosy picture with many painful defeats coming on this day. Normally across history, finals of any global sporting event gets played on a weekend to attract maximum crowd base and viewership. In the initial days when the ODI World Cup started, most of the finals were played on a Saturday but however off late majority of the final clashes invariably tend to take place on a Sunday. Let's briefly look at India's record in all the major finals played across limited overs internationals spanning the ODI World Cup, Champions Trophy and T20 World Cup.

1) Saturday - 25th June 1983 - ODI WC - India won by 38 runs against West Indies
2) Sunday - 15th Oct 2000 - CT - India lost by 4 wickets against New Zealand
3) Monday - 30th Sep 2002 - CT - India won but shared the trophy with Sri Lanka due to wash out
4) Sunday - 23rd Mar 2003 - ODI WC - India lost by 134 runs against Australia
5) Monday - 24th Sep 2007 - T20 WC - India won by 5 runs against Pakistan
6) Saturday - 2nd Apr 2011 - ODI WC - India won by 6 wickets against Sri Lanka
7) Sunday - 23rd Jun 2013 - CT - India won by 5 runs against England
8) Sunday - 6th Apr 2014 - T20 WC - India lost by 6 wickets against Sri Lanka
9) Sunday - 18th Jun 2017 - CT - India lost by 180 runs against Pakistan
10) Sunday - 19th Nov 2023 - ODI WC - India lost by 6 wickets against Australia
11) Saturday - 29th Jun 2024 - T20 WC - India won by 7 runs against South Africa
12) Sunday - 9th Mar 2025 - CT - India won by 4 wickets against New Zealand

Thus looking at the list above, India have won all 3 events when it took place on a Saturday. They also won 2 trophies when it was played on a Monday. The CT 2002 was scheduled initially on a Sunday but the match got rained off and moved to Monday which again resulted in the match being washed off by rain enabling India to share the trophy with tournament hosts Sri Lanka. The reason why the inaugural T20 WC 2007 final was held on Monday was because it was a public holiday on account of 'Heritage day' in South Africa deeming the final to be played on a Monday. Any day other than a weekend hosting a final is something one will not see often and is indeed quite a rare occasion. When it came to Sundays, out of 7 Sundays in which India has participated in finals, they have lost 5 and going in to the match against New Zealand they were 1-5 on the descendancy during finals held on Sunday. Some of the most damning defeats also have come on Sunday including a defeat almost a quarter century ago to New Zealand in this very own Champions Trophy in 2000. Also both India's final defeats in ODI WC came against Australia and behold both being Sundays. The last Champions Trophy final in 2017 also saw India getting a pasting by Pakistan by being served a royal thrashing. The only Sunday win which India enjoyed was on a rain affected final match on a late London evening in CT 2013 when the original 50 over match got rescheduled to 20 overs where India just about managed to pip England despite being on the back foot for most of the match. Thus Sundays in general haven't been to India's calling when it comes to major tournament finals.

When it comes to numbers, this happened to be the third straight global cricketing event which happened to be played on a date involving 9 in some way. 19th Nov 2023 was the final date of ODI WC 2023 with 29th June 2024 being the final date of T20 WC 2024 and the current Champions Trophy final was held on 9th March 2025. India had lost the ODI WC final in 2023 played on a Sunday whereas they won the T20 WC final played on a Saturday. Coming to the CT final of 2025, it was again played on a Sunday somewhat being stacked against India. In numerology, the normal tendency is to add up the digits to make it all within the ambit of 9 numbers. The previous CT final was held on 18th June 2017 where the date equated is 9 (1+8) and India got a hammering. This particular CT final was also on 9th March 2025 equating to 9 thus giving the jitters a wee bit. 

Coming to months, June has been pretty favourable for India with them winning an ODI World Cup, Champions Trophy and a T20 World Cup in this particular period. They however lost the CT final of 2017 in June. September is a month where India won both their finals viz the CT 2002 (shared) and T20 WC 2007. 2 titles have come in March (CT 2025) & April (ODI WC 2011) though both these months have also witnessed the team losing a final viz ODI WC 2003 in March & T20 WC 2014 in April. India have however only lost finals when played in October and November. Hence it's 3/4 in June, 2/2 in September, 1/2 in March, 1/2 in April, 0/1 in October and 0/1 in November. With respect to the dates within the months, India has been super successful in the 3rd part of the month ranging from dates 21st to 30th with 5 of their titles coming in dates of 23 (23rd Jun 2013 CT), 24 (24th Sep 2007 T20 WC), 25 (25th Jun 1983 ODI WC), 29 (29th Jun 2024 T20 WC) and 30 (30th Sep 2002 CT). The only one blemish was another 23 with India losing the ODI WC final on 23rd March 2003. In the first 10 days of the month, the success has been reasonable with India winning 2 titles (2nd Apr 2011 ODI WC and 9th Mar 2025 CT) but also losing 1 final (6th Apr 2014 T20 WC). The days between 11th to 20th has been outright worst for India as they have lost all 3 finals played during this time (15th Oct 2000 CT, 18th Jun 2017 CT and 19th Nov 2023 ODI WC). In terms of numerology dates, #2 has been very good for India with 2 of the most memorable triumphs coming on these dates (2nd Apr 2011 ODI WC and 29th Jun 2024 T20 WC). The other 5 titles have come on #3,5,6,7,9. In terms of losses, 2 of them have come on #6 date (15th Oct 2000 CT and 6th Apr 2014 T20 WC) while others have been spread across dates of #1,5,9. 

Another cosmic connection at play happens to be the colour of the jersey. Ever since coloured clothing became a thing with Limited Overs Internationals beginning from the 1992 ODI World Cup onwards, India have largely sported a predominant colour of "Blue". Each of the planets ruling a day are generally associated with a colour and it might be strange but history has witnessed that specific colours worn on select days have had quite a say. Listing below the days which are ruled by the planets and the  associated colour

Sunday - Sun - Orange (Also can be copper color which is orangish red or reddish brown)
Monday - Moon - White (Generally said to be Milky White)
Tuesday - Mars - Red (Associated with Blood Red colour)
Wednesday - Mercury - Green (Shades of Green both light and dark)
Thursday - Jupiter - Yellow (Any type of Yellow or even Gold colour)
Friday - Venus - White/Blue (More of Curdish White and lighter shade of Blue)
Saturday - Saturn - Black (Pitch dark black or a semblance of a dark blue colour)

Generally, you would see that Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday ruled by Sun, Mars and Jupiter get along well with one another. Australia have been very successful in cricketing finals held on Sunday with the Yellow colour proving to be very prominent. Even the West Indies who normally wear shades of Red/Maroon have seemingly been reasonably successful in finals when held on Sunday. The colours of Wednesday, Friday and Saturday ruled by Mercury, Venus & Saturn are said to be more in sync with each other. Monday ruled by Moon tends to be quite neutral and gets along with both pairs in equal elan. There is a saying that Moon has no enemies. In the second set, Venus ruling Friday & Saturn ruling Saturday are said to be hardcore enemies with Sun who rules the day of Sunday but however this exception does not hold true for Mercury which rules Wednesday. Hence Green colour is equally prominent for both Saturdays and Sundays with the former perhaps being a touch more favourable. In fact South Africa who have won 4 Rugby World Cups have won all their 4 finals when played on a Saturday. They however lost the T20 WC final played against India on a Saturday. 

For India who sports significantly the blue colour, Saturdays have been very successful with them winning all their 3 big ticket final encounters. Even the odd Monday has proved lucky. However Sunday ruled by Sun hasn't really been to India's favour with Venus & Sun seeing bitter enmity. The one thing which worked excessively to India's favour in the CT final of 2025 is that their opponent New Zealand were donning black attire which again is very unfavourable on a Sunday with the enmity of Saturn & Sun being equally or more worse than between Venus & Sun. It would be very interesting to note that when the Kiwis toppled India in the CT final on a Sunday 25 years back in 2000, they were not wearing cardinal black and in fact had streaks of Green & Grey which tilted the tide in their favour. It must also be said that New Zealand's record has been pathetic on all the finals when they have gone with full black. They lost the 2015 ODI WC to Australia badly, had a massive heartbreak by losing to England in the ODI WC of 2019 on boundary count. This continued in the 2021 T20 WC as well when they lost the final to Australia in the UAE. Ironically, the Kiwis only major white ball cricketing triumph came when they were not in full black in CT 2000. The All Blacks are a successful Rugby side and all their 3 victories so far came when they played the final on a Saturday. Their 2 defeats in finals came to South Africa who wear green which was also on a Saturday. Generally it is seen that when a team wears a colour which rules that day plays against a team where the colour also happens to be favourable, the former tends to lose because of the colour being overbearing and working against it.

In this particular final of CT 2025, one advantage which India had was that New Zealand too wore a colour of Black which is completely inimical on the day of Sunday which played to India's advantage unlike the 2000 Champions Trophy final. It is been advised that Black colour especially has an extremely negative effect on Sunday. India obviously had the mastery of their squad working tricks on the Kiwis but no denying that this jersey colour effect also played against them. One other interesting coincidence to note is that in the T20 WC final 2024, the top scorer and Man of the Match was Virat Kohli for scoring 76 and voila the same thing repeated in the CT Final 2025 where the top scorer and player of the match was Rohit Sharma who also garnered the same score of 76 with the bat. 

Thus when you look at the overall scheme of things, these tend to be interesting takeaways. Whatever said and done, the skill sets, temperament and will to win is what reigns supreme and these things tend to take a backseat when the former tends to be paramount. However there is no refuting the fact that in sport, luck also does have an element and these superstitions and cosmic energies have proved to be of consequence at least as per the patterns at play and what history has suggested in the past.

Lionel Messi Drawing Parallels with Sachin Tendulkar

The FIFA World Cup 2022 played out in Doha, Qatar ended in sterling style with Argentina clinching the title after 36 years in what could arguably be described as a game for the ages. It would not only go down as one of the greatest finals ever contested but even as a solitary match would easily stake claim as perhaps the finest football World Cup match ever played. The Germany vs Italy semifinal of 1970 is largely considered as the greatest World cup match ever contested but this encounter between France and Argentina in 2022 probably pips that one and takes the cake.

The initial Football World Cup was played way back in 1930 and it's been in operation for almost a century of years being rich in history and tradition. The silver lining with regard to this match was that it had to come at the most pinnacle junction like a final which made the whole event all the more awe inspiring. One of the games greatest Lionel Andres Messi finally got his hands on the coveted Jules Rimet trophy, the one eluding him that he was waiting dearly for so long and it just ended up being so very extra special that it had to happen in his final World Cup appearance.

The game had it's ebbs and flows right from around the second portion of the second half. Until then for almost 75 minutes, Argentina had dominated the match in what initially appeared like a lackluster performance by France only to suddenly turn it around thanks to their talisman Kylian Mbappe who produced a blitzkrieg of a hat trick literally out of nowhere and nearly snatched it for France. It was a bit depressing for the defending champions France to eventually bow out on penalty kicks having come so close and virtually having one hand at the trophy.

However the final hurrah was reserved for one man Argentina's Lionel Messi. He came agonizingly close to capturing the trophy 8 years back in 2014 but which ended in heart breaking fashion as Germany made the decisive move to capture the crucial winning goal in the wee minutes of extra time. Messi being the player of the tournament was no solace as he so badly wanted the victors medal but alas it was not to be. The heart break continued again in 2018 as Argentina came undone against a quality young French side in the quarter finals who eventually would go on to claim the title. 2022 was Messi's last chance and a failure again would have deemed to be catastrophical. At the same time there was so much weight riding on Messi's shoulders to emulate the feat of Diego Maradona and anything other than a first placed finish was simply not good enough. Also to end up with no World Cup for not only the most seasoned player of his generation but also of all time would just be unacceptable. God however wrote the perfect script and Messi did eventually see his dream coming true with his beloved Argentinian side clinching victory in an unprecedented anti climax fashion to finally cement their side a World Cup medal after 1986 when Messi wasn't even born then.

The obvious comparison with Messi finally being a World Cup winner would be to line him up with his immortal country man Diego Maradona who performed a similar feat in 1986. It was as if the monkey was finally off Messi's back as he ultimately sealed glory alongside Maradona in being a World Champion himself. It would have even more amazing if Maradona was alive and witness to this. However there is no doubt that the great legend would have been blessing Albiceleste from the stars. Another of the comparison would have been with his illustrious peer Cristiano Ronaldo who along with Lionel Messi have been staving off comparisons over more than a decade now as to who is the greatest in the present generation. Messi has certainly leapfrogged Ronaldo with this success as CR7s only major triumph for his country Portugal came in the Euro 2016 when they upstaged France in the final. With this monumental triumph however, Messi also officially has staked his claim to be the GOAT alongside former winners Pele and Maradona. Incidentally, Pele, Maradona and Messi contributed with exactly a total of 10 Goals/Assists during their respective world cup winning conquests in 1970, 1986 and 2022 respectively. 

Despite the heavy comparisons with former football players feats, the one which attracts an eerie level of coincidence happens to be with one of the torchbearers of Indian cricket namely Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Though Football and Cricket are sports as different as chalk & cheese, the situations in both Messi and Sachin's case appear so similar and it's remarkable that they just have so much in common with respect to their World Cup journeys.

Looking below at some of the engaging and interesting commonalities that have transpired in the lives of two of the greatest sportsmen from their respective fields of play:

1) Jersey Check - Both Sachin Tendulkar and Lionel Messi wore jerseys with the number 10 inscribed during their World Cup campaign.

2) Birth Date Check - Both are born on a #6 as per numerology and more specifically on the 24th of a calendar month. (Sachin 24th April 1973, Messi 24th June 1987)

3) Stature Check - Both are built around the same height measuring about 5'7 and considered to be the shortest players of their respective sides.

4) Heartbreak Check - Both encountered heart break losing the final of a World Cup 2 editions previous to their last and exactly 8 years prior. (Sachin in 2003 and Messi in 2014)

5) Player of the Tournament Check - Both were Player of the Tournament in their respective World Cup event despite not going on to win the trophy for their respective countries.

6) Appearance Check - Both of them have represented their countries in maximum World Cup campaigns in Cricket and Football respectively (Sachin with 6 and Messi with 5) 

7) 2nd Highest Scorer Check - Both ended up being the 2nd highest run and goal scorer respectively during their victorious campaign with the highest coming from the losing side playing the final (Dilshan for Sri Lanka and Mbappe for France) 

8) Defeat of Previous World Cup Winner Check - Both their sides India and Argentina defeated previous World Cup champions Australia (2007 Cricket World Cup Winner) and France (2018 Football World Cup Winner) on their way to victory. (India beat Australia in Quarter Finals and Argentina defeated France in the finals) 

9) One Match Defeat Check - Both their teams lost only one match in the entire tournament which came during the group stages (India against South Africa and Argentina against Saudi Arabia) 

10) Player of Match in Semifinals Check - Both were player of the match in their respective semi finals en-route to the final. (Sachin vs Pakistan and Messi vs Croatia) 

11) Previous World Cup win in 80s check - Both their teams previous World Cup victory incidentally occurred in the 80s. (India in 1983 and Argentina in 1986) 

12) World Cup Victory Multiple Check - Both Sachin and Messi finally realized their long standing dream of winning the coveted World Cup title in their last attempt and coincidentally it came in years involving multiples of 11. (Sachin in 2011 and Messi in 2022) 

13) Post Retirement Check - This is rather more of a cheeky one. Both were largely expected to hang their boots after their final world cup hurrah especially since this was what they were expecting to fructify during their lifetimes with the sport they love. However that was not to be the case as Sachin continued to play for a couple more years after that and with respect to Messi's case, he has just hinted in a post match interview that he intends to continue a wee bit longer in the Argentina shirt.

Thus is a short similarities compendium of the World Cup winning journeys of 2 amazing sportsmen who carried the entire burden of their respective nations on their shoulders and finally achieved unprecedented iconic status by winning the biggest prize the sport has to offer.