India's World Cup Winning Probabilities
Know India's world cup semi-final history. The hands are itching to write something so why not this.
- India has played all its semi-finals on A Wednesday or a Thursday. India has played 6 semi-finals. Won 3 lost 3. Of the 3 semi-final wins have led to 2 world cup wins in 1983 and 2011 and one final loss in 2003.
- In the first 2 WCs, reaching semi-final was out of question. Nothing was expected from the third WC too as we played the first game on 9th June 1983 a Thursday.
- India however made the semi-finals and squared up to England on June 22, 1983, A Wednesday. India won the semi-finals by beating hosts England by 6 wickets. In the finals, India beat WI by 43 runs to lift the WC for the first time in 1983 and stopped WI monopoly in the Cup. That was WI last finals ever. After that they have hardly made the semi-finals too except in 1996 and 2015.
- Holders India made another semi-final in 1987 in the World Cup played in India and Pakistan for the first time. This semi-final was played in Bombay on 5th November 1987 v England. In 1983, India played England at their home and beat them. Now it was England day to return the favour. They duly returned the favour beating India by 35 runs. India is again going to meet England at their home a day short of 380 months and a week, on a Thursday again.
- The 1992 World Cup expedition turned out to be a colossal failure. Neither the format nor the season suited India. Turned out to be a total wet season in Australia. It was a format similar to the 2019 format. How much Indian cricket has advanced in the last 27 years is that this time India has squared up to this format with full confidence and entered semi-finals for the third successive time. Can they cross the hurdle of semi-final is the question. A big challenge for Kohli and team.
- The 1996 world cup was played in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka again. The stock of India Pakistan rose again, but India entered semi-final beating Pakistan in the famous quarter final encounter at Bangalore on March 9, 1996. The whole country was agog with excitement as India squared to Sri Lanka on 13th March 1996 at Calcutta, A Wednesday. We know what happened there and turned out to be not only a termination day for India in World Cup 1996 but left a black mark to be remembered always.
- 1999 was a failure again, but in 2003, after a shocking defeat to Australia on 15-02-2003, a Saturday. India recovered very well to storm into the finals on March 20, 2003 beating Kenya in the semi-final, on a Thursday. This is the only incident thus far that India has won the semi-final but not the finals. India lost the finals to Australia on 23-03-2003, a Sunday at Johannesburg by 125 runs. A serious dream squashed.
- 2007 World Cup goes down as the biggest washout in Indian World Cup history losing the first game to Bangladesh on the very first day 17-03-2007. That was near crash out. Sri Lanka at such times waiting to rub India wrongly did the final cremation on 23-03-2007, a Friday.
- The 2011 World Cup returned back to Asia and India reached the semi-finals beating Australia in a historic quarter final encounter at Ahmedabad on 24-03-2011, a Thursday. It is important to note that India had finally beaten Australia after 23 years and 5 months in a World Cup encounter. The last win was in Delhi on 22-10-1987, again a Thursday. The gap was 8554 days to be exact.
- India played one of its best in 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. It is so strange that in the same Australian continent where India had failed so poorly in 1992 in 23 years reached semi-final beating Bangladesh in the quarter final on 19-03-2015, a Thursday. This was the game where the no ball episode took place and Bangladesh players thought that it was a no ball. But the umpire did not give a no ball and they made a huge ruckus of it. But next Thursday in the semi-final at Sydney on 26-03-2015, a Thursday. A new symptom that had erupted from 2014 to India in competitions whether a 50 over or a T20 trophy, one bad game and the whole tournament was lost. This would happen often in chases and the same happened here. India gave Australia 328 runs, at least 50 runs more and then the top order failed. This has caused Indian exit for many years now.
- The 2019 World Cup is reaching its business end. India has again reached semi-final beating Bangladesh again on 02-07-2019, a Tuesday, not a Thursday. In the last 2 major ICC tournaments, ICC World Cup 2015, and CT 2017, India has reached semi-final beating Bangladesh on a Thursday 19-03-2015 and finals on 15-06-2017. In the next game, we lost a big toss, the rivals have made big runs and our batting has collapsed. This time this phenomenon happened in the England game on 30-06-2019 a Sunday. Also we still have a league game v Sri Lanka tomorrow before India plays its semi-final. So let’s see what happens in the game tomorrow and later in the semi-final. This is the third India v England semi-final encounter and they have a 1-1 record. Both have been beaten at their home. By next Friday we would know whether India is in the finals or not. So it is going to be a test of patience for all the Indian fans. Thus far, India has played well and promise for more. So let us wait to see which side we turn up in the semi-finals.
Hope you enjoyed the article. There have been some very hard days through this journey. India seemed certain to do well in some of these world cups semi-finals. But lost on the big day. Do share your experiences through this journey.