Where does 14 July 2019 rank in the history of sports?

When sports fans across the world woke up on July 14, they knew they had a treat in store with the British Grand Prix, the Cricket World Cup final and the men’s singles final at Wimbledon all happening at the same time. Coincidentally all the three events were happening in London, one of the sporting capitals of the world.

But even the best script-writers in Hollywood couldn’t have predicted the drama that unfolded on that Sunday evening, which left everyone in shock, awe and disbelief. The sheer peculiarity of everything that unfolded often seemed beyond the realm of sporting logic.

With local lad Lewis Hamilton comfortably taking home the British Grand Prix, the focus firmly shifted to the Mecca of cricket, Lord’s, where hosts England were taking on neutral’s favourites New Zealand and the home of tennis, Wimbledon where World No. 1 Novak Djokovic was taking on crowd favourite and arguably the greatest of all time Roger Federer.

The match between Djokovic and Federer can best be described as a battle between the art and science of tennis. It was the wafer-thin Serb who has redefined precision against the Swiss master who personifies grace on the court.

These two have played out many an epic battle over the years, so most expected this to go the distance as well. But what happened on that afternoon on those hallowed lawns will go down in history as a tennis classic.

The two champions showcased skill, passion and grit in equal measure to play out the longest final in Wimbledon history - a 4 hour 57 minute long epic. In the end it was Djokovic who emerged victorious after winning the fifth set tie-breaker after the set was tied at 12-12.

Here's a look at the jaw-dropping highlights of the match:

In a match like this, no one deserves to lose. But that’s the beauty of sport; it produces a result when none seems possible.

It was a game of fine margins. Federer won more points overall, had more winners, broke more often and even looked the better player for most parts, yet ended up on the losing side. He failed to grab his chances to finish the match off, especially in the fifth set where he squandered two match points.

Instead, it was Djokovic who seized the crucial moments and ended up winning tennis’ most prestigious prize for the fifth time in his career. Federer didn’t do much wrong, but fighters like Djokovic embody the saying: “You give him a yard, him will take a mile.”

The Prime Minister Hosts A Reception For The Winning England Cricket Team

Barely 10 miles to the south of Wimbledon there was another classic being played out - the Cricket World Cup final. The teams were inseparable after 100 overs of cricket, having scored 241 runs each. If there wasn’t enough pressure already, this took the game to the Super Over to decide who would be the new world champions.

England batted first in the Super Over and scored 15. As fate would have it, New Zealand scored the same number of runs and the Super Over was tied too.

Here's a look at the frenetic final moments of the match:

But England were crowned world champions based on a superior boundary count (26-17), to send the generally dignified Lord’s into delirium. It was a highly contentious way to decide a game of that magnitude. But hey, the rule was in place before the tournament began; it was just that no one really expected that we would need it at any stage.

It was that sort of a day. There are thrillers, there are cliff-hangers, there are humdingers and then there is this.

Redemption man Ben Stokes won the Man of the Match award for a heroic performance which helped bury the ghosts of Kolkata 2016 and Bristol 2017.

A couple of calls in this match were fortuitous to say the least and will be debated for generations to come. One of course was the boundary count rule and whether there could have been a better way to decide a game of such importance. The other was that controversial ‘overthrow’ where the ball ricocheted off Stokes’ bat and went for 4 overthrows and gave England 6 runs in total, which proved to be the game’s turning point.

Did the umpires make a mistake? The debate is still going on. The bottom line is that no one lost the final yet there was a crowned winner. That’s the beauty of it.

This game will go down in cricketing folklore as arguably the greatest match of them all. It was a match that defied logic and left everyone breathless.

14 July 2019 is a day that will be etched in our memory forever. Hundreds of years later people will look back and wonder, ‘Did all of this actually happen?' It was a day that will be defined by a series of numbers: 12-12, 241-241, 15-15, 26-17.

Two of sports’ finest gentlemen, Roger Federer and Kane Williamson, who incidentally share the same birth date (August 8), born nine years apart (1981 and 1990), ended up on the losing side by the thinnest of margins. But they won hearts by displaying grace and poise despite their fate being cruelly snatched away from them.

All of this within 10 miles of each other. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? Well, it was that sort of an afternoon; one beyond the realm of rationality.