Cricket World cup: Flashback of 2015 & 2019 World cups

 

The World cup 2023 is weeks away and while we wait with great  anticipation to enjoy the mega event we look back that the memories of the past world cups . Here we revisit the most recent of the two world cups of 2015 and 2019 .

2015

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 was the 11th ICC Cricket World Cup, co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.  The tournament 2015 ran from February 14 - March 29, 49 matches were played at 14 venues, 26 matches were held in Australia, Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney,  New Zealand hosted 23 matches in Auckland,   Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton, Napier,  and Wellington.

In the group stages 16 teams participated in 2 groups . From group A  New Zealand qualified after winning all their matches followed by Australia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh whereas India (winning all their matches ), South Africa, Pakistan and West Indies  qualified from group B . In the group stage , the best game was between Australia and New Zealand . It was a low scoring game with Australia getting 151 allout batting first and Boult took 5 wickets. McCullum scored a blistering 24 ball 50 to set up New Zealand win but Mitchell Starc bowled  a hostile spell taking 6 late wickets and New Zealand almost lost but somehow escaped with a one wicket win against all odds .  With most pitches helping batting there were some big scores , with Gayle  getting 215 in a win by West Indies over Zimbabwe . A major upset happened in group A with England capitulating in a 275 chase vs Bangladesh and were all out 260 and finally they were out from the tournament. 

In group B , India looked a top side and won all their matches including their games vs Pakistan and South Africa.  Kohli 's 107 helped India to beat Pakistan by 76 runs and Dhawan's 137 helped India to hammer South Africa by 130 runs .

In the Quarter finals. New Zealand helped by Guptill's 237 beat West Indies  by 143 runs . South Africa easily beat Sri Lanka by 9 wickets . India helped by 137 from Rohit Sharma thrashed Bangladesh by 109 runs and Australia beat Pakistan by 6 wickets in a modest 213 chase .

In the semi finals India lost to Australia by a big margin of 95 runs with Steve Smith scoring a brilliant 105 to put up 328 for Australia and India failed to chase down , losing rather tamely by a big margin. 

In the other semis which was rain affected , it was an epic contest between hosts New Zealand and South Africa.  The Proteas scored a formidable 281/5 in 43 overs with Faf Duplessis (82) and A B D' Villiers (65) playing superbly  but the Kiwis were given a blistering start by McCullum scored 59 off only 26 balls before Grant Elliot (84*) and Corey Anderson (58) scripted a sensational win (Duckworth Lewis target 299 in 43 overs) on the last ball to break South African hearts yet  again .

The final was between the co hosts New Zealand and Australia and this time the imperious Aussies showed their prowess in big matches and avenged their group stage defeat to the Kiwis  by beating them in emphatic fashion in the finals. Batting first New Zealand lost McCullum in the first over to Starc and they never recovered from that being 183 all out with Grant Elliot again playing a great innings of 83 . However Australia were too strong and they knocked off the runs with 17 overs to spare with Warner (45) , Smith (56*) and skipper Michael Clarke (74) doing the honours . Thus Australia won the ODI World cup for the 5th time which is till date the highest by any country . 

Martin Guptill (547 runs ) was the highest run scorer in the tournament while Starc and Boult jointly became the highest wicket taker with 22 wickets apiece.

2019

The 2019 Cricket World Cup was hosted by England and Wales. It was the twelfth Cricket World Cup competition and the fifth time it was hosted in England and Wales.  This time the World Cup was held with round robin technique, in which all the teams played matches against each other.  The World Cup 2019 started on 30 May while its final match concluded on 14 July 2019.  The first match was between England and South Africa in which England was the winner.  The final was played between England and New Zealand in which England was declared the World Cup winner after the  super-over was tied, on a boundary count .

In the group stages top 8 teams in the world qualified  directly while West Indies and Afghanistan came through from the group stages .

England beat South Africa easily in the opening match by 104 runs as South Africa failed to chase a big target of 312 and were 207 allout . Ben Stokes scored 89 and took 2 wickets for England . In subsequent matches West Indies beat Pakistan , New Zealand beat Sri Lanka and Australia beat Afghanistan for easy wins . 

The first surprise result came in form of Bangladesh beating South Africa by 21 runs in a high scoring game . Bangladesh batted first and notched up 330 with great contributions from Shakib (75) , Mushfiqur (78) and supported well by others . South Africa batters tried hard as there were several good contributions but Bangladesh bowlers finally managed to restrict them to 309 in an  exciting game . 

In another surprise result Pakistan shocked England by 14 runs in a thriller . Md Hafeez (84) and Babar Azam (63) spearheaded Pakistan batting as they piled up a massive 348 . In reply England were 118/4 but Root (107)  and Buttler(103) resurrected the innings only for the lower order to crumble and England lost by 14 runs .

After Sri Lanka beat Afghanistan by 34 runs on D & L method  in a low scoring match , India opened their world cup campaign vs South Africa who had lost both their games till then . Chahal 's 4 wickets and good bowling by the rest of the Indian bowlers helped to restrict the Proteas to 227 and then Rohit Sharma produced a high quality 122 not out to shepherd India to a 6 wicket win and start their campaign on a bright note . 

New Zealand then played a tricky match at the Oval vs Bangladesh , escaping with a 2 wicket win chasing down a modest 244 .

Australia next played an exciting game vs the West Indies at Nottingham.  Early order collapse saw Australia struggling at 6/147 but brilliant hitting from Coulter Nile (92) and solid batting from Smith (79) and Carey (45) finally took Australia to a formidable score of 288 . However with quality batting from Hope , Pooran and Holder,  West Indies stayed in the hunt for long but eventually lost by 15 runs with Starc taking 5 wickets . 

After Pakistan v Sri Lanka match was a no result due to rain , England played a high scoring game vs Bangladesh at Cardiff . Jason Roy's imperious 153 helped England to pile up a huge 386 /6 . Bangladesh and Shakib (121) tried bravely to chase this down by lost by 106 runs . 

After New Zealand beat Afghanistan easily by 7 wickets , India and Australia locked horns in a great battle at the Oval . Shikhar Dhawan (117) led the way for India to put on a massive 352/5 with Rohit (57), Kohli (82) and Pandya (48) coming up with impact contributions. Australia could not force the pace at the start.  Smith (69), Warner (56) , Khawaja (42) scored important runs but it was Alex Carey's blazing 55 off 35 balls that slightly worried India though finally Australia had to score too much in the end and went down by 36 runs with Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah getting 3 wickets apiece . 

The South Africa v West Indies and Bangladesh v Sri Lanka matches were washouts but Australia helped by David Warner (107) and Aaron Finch (82) piled on a big stand against Pakistan before Aamir took 5 wickets to restrict Australia to 307. Pakistan tried hard with Imam (53) , Hafeez (46) contributing and then Hasan Ali (32) and Wahab Riaz (45) creating some panic with bog hitting but finally Australia prevailed to dismiss Pakistan for 266 .

New Zealand v India match was the next game to be washed out while England thrashed West Indies by 8 wickets and Australia beat Sri Lanka by 87 runs with Finch hitting 153 . 

Finally South Africa won their first game beating Afghanistan by 9 wickets  and then in the marquee clash at Manchester , India helped by Rohit Sharma's 140 , Kohli 's 77 and Rahul's 57 put on 336/5 vs Pakistan and then restricted them to 212/6 in 40 overs winning by 89 runs on Duckworth Lewis method.

Bangladesh continued their impressive show in the 2019 World cup and chased down 321 put on by the West Indies with Shakib playing another stellar knock of 124 . Meanwhile skipper  Eoin Morgan's 148 helped England to beat Afghanistan by 150 runs and New Zealand chased down 241 set by South Africa to win by 4 wickets . 

Australia helped by Warner's 166 beat a gallant Bangladesh  by 48 runs defending 381 . Mushfiqur scored a fine 102 for Bangladesh but in vain but the biggest upset result came in the next game between England and Sri Lanka as in reply to Sri Lanka 's modest 232 , England choked against Malinga who took 4 wickets in a thrilling win by 20 runs.  

In the next game India scoring a modest 224 were given a real scare by Afghanistan who lost by just 11 runs .

Meanwhile New Zealand and West Indies played a high scoring thriller . Williamson 148 helped New Zealand to put on 291 and then West Indies  helped by a blistering Braithwaite 101 off 82 balls nearly pulled off a win but at the end lost by 5 runs . 

South Africa 's poor run in World cup continued as they lost by 49 runs to Pakistan while Bangladesh beat Afghanistan by 62 runs .

Then came the battle royal at Lords between Australia and England.  Finch 100 helped Australia to get 285 and then Starc and Behrendorff wrecked the England innings taking 4 and 5 wickets respectively to bowl out England for 221 for a 64 run win in a high profile contest . 

In the next game New Zealand slipped up against Pakistan to lose by 6 wickets while India hammered West Indies by 125 runs with Shami taking 4 wickets . 

South Africa finally came into it's own beating Sri Lanka by 9 wickets while Pakistan survived a scare before beating Afghanistan by 3 wickets  with 2 balls remaining . 

It was a battle of two left arm quicks in Australia v New Zealand match again like in 2015 . Khawaja's 88 took Australia to 243 with Boult taking 4 wickets but Starc with 5/26 destroyed New Zealand for just 157 with Australia closing in on semis spot .

Finally India tasted their 1st defeat in this world cup going down to England by 31 runs in a high scoring game . Bairstow (111) and Stokes (79) took England to 337 . Rohit 's 102 was not enough for India to surpass England .

After Sri Lanka beat West  Indies by 23 runs , India beat a spirited Bangladesh by 28 runs reach closer to semis with Rohit (104) getting another ton .

With another Jonny Bairstow (106) hundred England thrashed New Zealand by 119 runs to confirm their semis spot .

After West Indies and Pakistan won their next round of games vs Afghanistan and Bangladesh respectively, India beat Sri Lanka by 7 wickets chasing down 264 with Rahul (111) and Rohit (103) scoring tons . Meanwhile Australia lost to a rejuvenated South Africa by just 10 runs failing to chase down 325 but it did not affect their semi final standings . 

Thus India finished as the top team in the league stage followed by Australia, England and New Zealand who managed to surpass Pakistan on net run rate .

In the semis India and New Zealand met at Manchester over 2 days due to rain . The Kiwis helped by Kane Williamson (67) and Ross Taylor (74) scored 239 and then rocked Indian top order at 5/3 with Rohit , Rahul and Kohli dismissed.  Pant (32) stayed for a while but it was the Jadeja (77) , Dhoni(50) stand which took India close after 92/6 but Jadeja got out and then Dhoni run out towards the end to break the Indian hearts as New Zealand reached the final winning by 18 runs .

In the other semis at Birmingham Australia made a subdued 223 with Smith scoring 85 . England won easily by 8 wickets  with 18 overs to go with Jason Roy scoring a blistering 65 ball 85 .

The final at Lords turned out to be the greatest and the most epic final played in an World cup . New Zealand scored 241/8 batting first with decent contributions from Henry Nicholls (55) , Kane Williamson (30) and Tom Latham (47). Plunkett and Woakes took 3 wickets each .

In reply England started sluggishly and were 86/4 at one stage before Stokes (84*) and Buttler (59) provided a great partnership of 110 runs before Buttler was out at 196/5 to bring New Zealand back in the game and from there England lost quick wickets and just managed to tie the score at 241 with Stokes still there. 

The super-over was played . Buttler and Stokes took 15 off Boult and then Archer bowled for England . Neesham hit a 2nd ball 6 . New Zealand reached 14 with last ball to come and Guptill was run out attempting a second run and the super over was tied enabling England to win a world cup slightly controversially on greater boundary count than New Zealand in the tournament  .

This was England 's first ever World cup after 44 years of wait and again a huge heartbreak for New Zealand. 

Rohit Sharma of India had a stellar World cup scoring the highest 648 runs with 5 centuries in a single event while Mitchell Starc created a new record of getting 27 wickets - the highest in any world cups .