The week preceding the commencement of Paris Olympic Games 2024 was an eventful one. India embarked on their title defence of the Women's Asia Cup in style, while the squad announcement for their men's counterparts bore major surprises. (More Sports News)
Let us recap all that transpired across sporting arenas between July 15 and 21, 2024.
Cricket
The Women's Asia Cup got underway, and holders India handed a seven-wicket thrashing to arch-rivals Pakistan in Dambulla. Harmanpreet Kaur and Co followed that up with a big win over UAE, which saw the Indian women amassing their highest-ever T20I total (201 runs). The reigning champions are nearly guaranteed a spot in the semi-finals, and are eyeing their eighth trophy at the continental tournament.
Meanwhile, the Indian men's squads for the Sri Lanka white-ball tour were announced. Suryakumar Yadav was named T20I skipper ahead of Hardik Pandya, who was not even designated as the vice-captain as Shubman Gill was allotted that role in the T20s as well as ODIs. Chief selector Ajit Agarkar later said the move was partly owing to Pandya's fitness issues.
At Trent Bridge, England completed a series-sealing victory against West Indies in the second Test. Joe Root, Harry Brook and Shoaib Bashir were the stars as the hosts recovered from a first-innings deficit to pull off the resounding win.
Football
After the action-packed closures to UEFA European Championship and Copa America the previous week, this one was relatively dull in terms of high-octane action. A Lionel Messi-less Inter Miami beat Chicago Fire 2-1 in Major League Soccer, while UEFA Champions League qualifiers continued.
Other Sports
In tennis, former world number 1 Rafael Nadal reached his first final since French Open 2022 before going down to Nuno Borges at the Swedish Open. Nadal has now trained his sights on Paris Olympics, and though his name figures in the US Open entry list too, the Spaniard will take a call on participation later.
The world of motorsport saw Oscar Piastri claiming his maiden Formula 1 triumph at the Hungarian Grand Prix. With his third-place finish, the evergreen Lewis Hamilton became the first driver in history to secure 200 podiums.
In cycling, Tadej Pogacar won the final stage of the Tour de France to become the champion for the 2024 season. With the win, Pogacar also became the first cyclist to secure the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France titles in the same year since the late Marco Pantani in 1998.
