Two team efforts, two dream wins

India players celebrate winning the Lord’s Test against England on Monday. Pic/BCCI; (Below) Spain players after their 2-0 win over France in the semis on Tuesday. Pic/AFP

In the last 72 hours, international sport has witnessed two stupendous team efforts. First, Harmanpreet Kaur & Co shocked England in the first ever women's Test at the iconic Lord's. Then, Spain stunned a star-studded France in the FIFA World Cup semi-finals. Both, Indian cricket and Spanish football, are known for their star power, but in both these instances, it was sheer teamwork that made the difference.

The Indian women's team did not have just one or two, but eight heroes - opener Smriti Mandhana's (83 & 70), skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (58), Deepti Sharma (57 & 2-36), Yastika Bhatia (113), Richa Ghosh (50 not out), pacer Kranti Gaud (5-37 & 2-54), pacer Sayali Satghare (2-40 & 2-24) and off-spinner Sneh Rana (2-41 & 4-42). England had the individual brilliance of Sophie Ecclestone (3-68, 5-118, 50) and Amy Jones (52 & 54), but it was no match to India's collective contributions.

Meanwhile, Spain, who flew into the semis under the radar, stemmed the individual brilliance of France's superstars with a sturdy set-up, courtesy their long list of heroes. Goalkeeper Unai Simon with defenders Marc Cucurella and Aymeric Laporte, constantly denied the famed French forwardline of Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, Desire Doue, Michael Olise and Bradley Barcola. The Spaniards came up with 22 tackles and 22 clearances compared to France's 13 and 11 respectively. Defensive brilliance is the reason the reigning European champs remain unbeaten in 37 games, and have kept a clean sheet in six of their seven World Cup games.

Midfielders Rodri and Dani Olmo were relentlessly accurate. Spain made a whopping 427 passes compared to France's 395. One such pass saw Olmo set up an unlikely hero in deep defender Pedro Porro, who scored off an intelligent overlap (58th min). Spain's teamwork is also highlighted by the fact that they've made the most passes, 4592, at this World Cup, with Argentina (4162) and France (3865) next.

Spain's forwardline again threw up two familiar heroes - teenager Lamine Yamal and Mikel Oyarzabal, with the former earning a penalty which the latter converted (22nd min). It was another example of Spain's selfless approach as Yamal, who is efficient at penalty conversions himself, let Oyarzabal stretch his tally to five, keeping alive his Golden Boot race.

The most telling team statistic though comes in the dribbling section, where Spain had just five while France made 24 dodges.