Cliff hangers

Sunday saw two closely fought games- World Cup cricket final between the hosts England and New Zealand at Lords and Wimbledon Men’s single final between legends Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic at the Centre Court! Though, India was directly unconnected with both this big games, lovers of tennis and cricket were treated to a real feast.

The World Cup final was a game to die for. New Zealand, batting first, put up a moderate score and then fielded and bowled well to defend the target. However, heroic performances by the men for all seasons, Buttler and Stokes tied the scores, dragging the match into Super Over. At the end of two super overs, bowled by Boult for New Zealand and Archer for England, the scores were still tied. Finally the rules of the game came into play resulting in England getting declared as the Champion. You seldom get to see such a close encounter with nothing to choose between the two teams. Of course, I read some interesting trivia about the tournament. Pakistan was the only team team to have beaten both – England and New Zealand, while India lost to both, but defeated Pakistan most convincingly. We can conclude that while Pakistan is a giant killer, India is an effective killer 🤪. Something to rejoice for neutral spectators!

Joker- Federer game was the longest final game played ever in the history of Wimbledon. The eventual champion had to save two championship points. Amongst the three of them – Nadal, Novak and Federer have won 11 grand slam tournaments on the trot! Goes on to show the complete dominance by these top 3 players. A special mention must be made of Roger Federer, who at 37 continues to be a top player, having already registered his name in the list of “All time Greats” !

India had a great team but some poor strategy and planning and a bit of adverse luck, ensured that its campaign ended rather prematurely. Though, we saw some individual brilliance from Rohit, Kohli, Bumrah, Shami and Jadeja, probably that temperament to perform on the big day was lacking. In Tennis, after eclipse of Bhupathi and Paes, who won a few grand slam doubles by partnering each other as also other players, we have not really seen a talent capable of offering formidable challenge to top players. But let’s not forget that if cricketers did not fulfil our expectation and tennis was a distant dream, Dutee Chand won 100 metres gold in 2019 Summer Universiad and has brought great glory and cheers to our nation. Let’s encourage all sports persons and their disciplines and that may lessen the load of expectations that we put on our cricketers!