ODI World cup countdown : How India fared in world cups across decades

 

The schedule of ODI World Cup 2023 is ready .  India's first match in this tournament, which runs from October 5 to November 19, is against Australia on October 8.  After this, Team India will play Afghanistan on October 11 and Pakistan on October 15 and so on .  The ODI World Cup is being organized in India for the fourth time and Team India would like to win this World Cup for the third time.  Earlier, India had hosted the ODI World Cup in 1987, 1996 and 2011, but only in 2011, the Indian team was able to win the title at home.  However, India has never hosted the World Cup alone before.  Every time Sri Lanka, Pakistan or Bangladesh were co-hosts with India.

 India has won the ODI World Cup for the first time in 1983 and for the second time in 2011 and in 2003, Team India lost in the final.  Here we are looking at the record of Team India in every edition of ODI World Cup.

 1975

 The first World Cup of cricket was played in 1975.  At this time the Indian team was very weak and ODI matches were of 60 overs.  India's first match was against England and Dennis Amiss scored the world's first century.  India's performance in reply was disappointing.  Sunil Gavaskar batted the entire 60 overs and returned unbeaten after scoring only 36 runs.  Team India lost this match by 202 runs.  In the next match, India made a comeback by defeating East Africa by 10 wickets, but New Zealand defeated Team India by four wickets.  With this the Indian team was out of the World Cup.  In the end the West Indies team became the champion.

 1979

 This time also the World Cup was organized in England and the Indian team could not win any match this time.  The Indian team under Venkatraghavan was out of the tournament after losing all three league matches. They lost the first game to the mighty West Indies by 9 wickets and then were outplayed by New Zealand . In their final match too India failed to beat minnows Sri Lanka who were yet to get Test status and were badly humiliated .    The final match was between host England and defending champion West Indies.  West Indies won the tournament by defeating England and became world champion for the second consecutive time.

1983

 The third edition of the ODI World Cup was also played in England.  This time also the Indian team was not expected to win the World cup after back to back Test series thrashings to Pakistan and West Indies.  India had to face consecutive defeats even in the practice matches.  The Indian team also lost to a small county team of England in a practice match.  However, as soon as the tournament started, Team India got into rhythm and defeated West Indies by 34 runs in the first match itself as the ball swinging ability of the Indian medium pace attack proved decisive and was going to play a big part .  This was the Caribbean team's first defeat in the World Cup.  In the second match, India easily defeated Zimbabwe.  However ,in the third match, India had to face a big defeat of 162 runs against Australia.  India's next match was again against West Indies and Team India lost this match by 66 runs as the mighty West Indies avenged their earlier defeat .  After two consecutive defeats, the journey ahead was looking difficult for India, but the 31-run win against Zimbabwe on the back of Kapil Dev's match salvaging 175* from 17/5 ,  boosted the morale of the Indian players 

 India defeated Australia by 118 runs in the next match as Roger Binny led a fin Indian bowling performance . India  defeated England by six wickets in the semi-finals which surprised England .  India again faced West Indies in the final and Team India created history by winning the sensational  match by 43 runs.  The Indian team became the world champion for the first time and the West Indies team missed out on a hat-trick of titles.

 1987

 For the first time, the World Cup was held outside England and the number of overs was reduced from 60 to 50.  India and Pakistan got hosting rights, but both the teams could not win the title.  India under Kapil Dev  started off with a heartbreaking 1 run loss to Australia in a high scoring game at Chennai but raised their levels to register emphatic wins in their next five games beating New Zealand and Zimbabwe twice and Australia in the return match . Although, the Indian team was successful in reaching the semi-finals , but here it had to face defeat against England as Graham Gooch & Mike Gatting swept the Indian spinners to put on a decent target which India failed to chase down .  Australia under Allan Border  defeated England in the final and won the title for the first time.

1992

 India did not have a good start under the captaincy of Mohammad Azharuddin in the World Cup played in Australia.  In the first match itself, Team India lost to England by nine runs.  The match against Sri Lanka was washed out due to rain.  In the next match, Team India lost against host Australia by one run after a gripping contest .  After this India defeated Pakistan and Zimbabwe.  However, West Indies defeated India and Team India's hopes of playing the semi-finals were weakened.  In the next two matches, India had to face defeats against New Zealand and South Africa and Team India was out of the group stage.  Pakistan under Imran Khan won the final match beating England.

 1996

 This World Cup was held in India and Team India made a good start.  Though India lost to Australia, they performed  well in the league stage under Azharuddin,  India made it to the quarter-finals and got a great win against Pakistan here.  India had a good start against Sri Lanka in the semi-final match, but as soon as Sachin was out, the entire team fell apart.  The spectators rioted and the Sri Lankan team was declared the winner.  In the end Sri Lanka under Arjuna Ranatunga also won the title beating Australia in the final at Lahore .

 1999

 In this World Cup played in England, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly batted brilliantly.  Both of them created history by making a partnership of 318 runs against Sri Lanka.  Team India reached the quarter-finals by defeating Sri Lanka and  Pakistan in the league match, but here Team India had to face defeat against Australia and New Zealand in the super 6 and the Indian team was out of the World Cup.  Australia under Steve Waugh  won the final beating Pakistan convincingly.  

2003

 Under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly, the Indian team played brilliantly throughout the tournament after getting thrashed by Australia at the start .  In the tournament played in South Africa, Team India played brilliantly and only the Australian team could defeat India.  Having won easily in the league stage beating England , Netherlands etc India also defeated Sri Lanka easily in the Super Six round and beat Kenya in the semis .  India made it to the finals, but here Australia defeated Team India by 125 runs and India's dream of becoming champion was shattered.

 2007

 This was the worst World Cup for the Indian team.  In the tournament held in West Indies, the Indian team under Dravid was eliminated from the group stage itself.  The team full of legends like Dravid, Ganguly and Sachin lost to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and was eliminated from the World Cup.  In this tournament, Team India was able to achieve its only win against Bermuda.  Pakistan team also got eliminated after losing to Ireland.  The captains of both the teams resigned and the Australian team became the champion.

2011

 Under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India played the World Cup on home soil and also became champion.  India first avenged the defeat in 2007 by defeating Bangladesh, then Yuvraj Singh's brilliant game took Team India to the semi-finals as India beat reigning champions Australia in the Quarters .  India defeated Pakistan in the in the semi-finals in a high profile clash with Tendulkar scoring 85 . India Won the World Cup for the second time by defeating Sri Lanka in the final. After Jayawardene scored a brilliant hundred to get Sri Lanka to 274 , India chased down the score after loss of early wickets which Gambhir (97) and later Dhoni (91*) scripting the famous win at Wankhede stadium Mumbai  for India's second World cup title . 

 2015

 In the World Cup played in Australia, Team India made it to the semi-finals on the basis of Shami's brilliant bowling and good performance of the batsmen in the group stages as they beat Pakistan , South Africa & West Indies . India beat Bangladesh in the quarter final . However, due to the brilliant batting of Steve Smith &  bowling of Mitchell Johnson, India had to face defeat against the host Australia in the semis  and the host team under Michael Clarke  became the champion by defeating New Zealand in the final. 

 2019

 India once again made a great start in the tournament played in England.  By winning most of the league matches , India made it to the semi-finals. On the way they beat Australia, courtesy Dhawan century and Pakistan courtesy Rohit century as two major wins .  However in the semis  India had to face a heartbreaking defeat against New Zealand in a rain-interrupted match.  Once again Team India was eliminated after losing in the semi-finals and England won the World Cup by defeating New Zealand in the final.

 Now the World Cup is being organized once again in India in 2023.  In such a situation, it is expected that like 2015 and 2019, this time too the home team will become champion.  If this happens, India will win the ODI World Cup for the third time.