Through the prism of cricket, clearly

There were other parallels. Each match was played on a slow wicket, designed to give India's spinners traction

As I watched the Australians take control of the 2023 World Cup final, my mind flipped back to two heartbreaking matches I watched in the last century. One was the 1996 semifinal at Eden Gardens, when Sri Lanka strangled India. The other was the 1987 semifinal with England, when Graham Gooch swept Ravi Shastri and Maninder Singh into oblivion at the Wankhede Stadium.

India has lost plenty of key World Cup encounters for a host of different reasons including being outplayed by teams that were just plain stronger. But such losses are not heartbreaking in the same way. One thread that