Prior to the 2019 World Cup final, there was only one match, the England vs West Indies 2016 World T20 final, at Eden Gardens, Kolkatta, the greatest World Cup encounter of all-time, in the modern age. But, for the 2019 stunner to easily eclipse the 2016 shocker, only the fewest and the rarest have succeeded.
Competing with the cracker of a match it was, the Wimbledon’s men’s single’s final, also made a mark, as the longest single’s final, in the history of the tournament.
As Tuesday (14), marks a year since that day, the Daily News briefly dives, recounting as to what made the two a-cut-above-the-rest matches. Cricket, on hard-to-accept grounds, reminded it’s the boss of the glorious game of uncertainties.
The bright and the brilliant part was for a Lankan umpire, Kumar Dharmasena, to officiate the grand finale. Only for the cruel and crucial moments of the game to turn him into a brickbat.
At the end of the once-in-a-lifetime match, there were three categories of people. Brits, the host and the first-time winners, bestowed with the title. New Zealanders, one of the fair players (rules-wise) of the game only to be unfairly punished, and then the umpires’ judgement sparking controversy.
From start-to-finish, it all unfolded, at the very place, the game’s law is designed and defined, the Marylebone Cricket Club! The beauty of coincidence was that, Lords, the lord of the game, had to be a witness of this one-off wonder.
All blacks setting a decent target of 241 for the title, bowling them out till the last ball, resulting in a tie that enabled and went into a super over, which also concluded in another tie. Only for all of these to be marred by controversy. Ultimately, it was on the basis of boundary counts, which had the ultimate say over the ultimate match.
From the game of cricket, there were moments, Kiwis, eventually and undeservingly finishing as the runner-ups. The gracious group were punished during the climax stages.
Despite that for Martin Guptill playing to the spirit of the game signalling six-runs (during a crunch moment) or for the side’s skipper Kane Williamson not to find fault but to take it on the stride, such phases filtered out the real gentlemen from the gentlemen’s game.
At the conclusion, Brits would have felt like a worm even to be crowned with the game’s highest prize, as the adored black caps were coming to terms with the waterloo.
While the unbelievable scenes of a gentleman's game was leaving an indelible history, another game of Wimbledon’s men’s singles championship, also turned out to be a mouth-watering finish.
A contest, between Roger Federer, the king of grass, and Novak Djokovic, known for his resilience, fought their skins off as long as they could.
Both the title-deciding games were fiercely contested, but at least, Wimbledon saw the latter, beating the red-hot favourite, on fair-and-square grounds.
The near-five-hour-long gruelling finale, peaked on-par making it a marathon of a match.
Djokovic, coming into the championship match defending his title was up against Federer, at his Wimbledon forte.
Djokovic took the opening set 7-6, however, Federer stormed his way back in the second-set sealing it 6-1. Since then, the match did go see-saw, with two of the ‘big 3’ in tennis, going all out.
At the fifth-and-the-final set, at 12-all, as in the case of the cricket final, it went into the unbeatable coincidence of a tie, in the decisive moments of the climax.
Eventually, it was 38-year-old Federer’s forehand forcing an error, gifting Djokovic’s his fifth grass court title.
To remember, it was two sports, two finals and two tedious matches, well-etched in the memory of those who watched on a sensational sporting Sunday.
It’s a highlight in the record books as a match, unmatched and unlikely to be matched.
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