India's World Cup cricket career highlights and lowlights for the 2023 tournament
The game-changing day in Indian cricket
One of the biggest surprises in sporting history is still considered to be India's triumph in the 1983 Cricket World Cup.
India was viewed as a hopeless cause at the time in one-day international cricket because they had only won one game in their previous two World Cup appearances.
On June 25, 1983, India defeated the legendary West Indies, accomplishing what had previously believed unthinkable.
India, who were batting first, was knocked out for 183. The Caribbean camp appeared to have another opportunity to celebrate as Viv Richards led his team to a 50-1 reply score, but then all was about to change for India.
Richards misjudged the timing of a hook over midwicket, which caused the ball to soar into the air. Kapil Dev, the captain of India, sprinted back from mid-on, focused on the ball, and grabbed it with both hands. India delighted as the floodgates opened, the great Windies were reduced to 140 for loss, and the nation's love affair with one-day cricket began.
The cricketing 'lowest point' in India
India's "lowest point" in World Cup history occurred in the West Indies in 2007, where a team captained by Rahul Dravid was eliminated after losing to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the group stage.
Underdogs The biggest shock came when Bangladesh defeated India in Port of Spain by five wickets in a low-scoring match.
India's performance was dubbed "shambolic" by commentators, who also cited the team's "toothless bowling attack" and "sloppy fielding" as contributing factors in the defeat.
After the loss, angry Indian supporters broke into the newly-built home of wicketkeeper MS Dhoni. In several areas, there were demonstrations against the team, and Kolkata in eastern India burned player effigies.
An epic battle
The inaugural World Cup match between India and Pakistan in Sydney in March 1992 will always be remembered for the altercation between India wicketkeeper Kiran More and Pakistan batter Javed Miandad.
After a verbal altercation over the wicketkeeper's overly enthusiastic request for a leg-side catch, Miandad mockingly leaped up and down in apparent imitation, according to ESPN Cricinfo's report on the incident.
More recalled the incident in an interview years later.
"He was repeating, 'Don't worry, we will easily win this match,' in Hindi. And I proclaimed, "Go to hell, we're winning this game." Then Sachin Tendulkar made an appeal from the leg side. I believed he was running late. Javed yelled at me when I appealed. He told me to stop talking after I urged him to stop. I leaped and whipped the stumps when there was a run-out appeal," More said.
Miandad ultimately scored 40 runs in 110 balls as Pakistan needed to score 216 runs to win. India defeated the opposition by 43 runs.
India's top six achievements in the world
In 2011, India won the World Cup for the first time since 1983 after defeating Sri Lanka by six wickets in a thrilling final.
Gautam Gambhir was dismissed for 97 runs, but captain MS Dhoni's stunning unbeaten 91 brilliantly guided India to a historic victory with 10 balls remaining.
The captain, who had been out of sorts for most of the competition, played the innings of his life and gave his team the win with a spectacular straight six off Nuwan Kulasekara that soared far into the seats.
That six and his contemplative response that followed will be cherished for ages.
The famed 'crawl' of Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar, the renowned opener for India, earned a questionable distinction in his very first World Cup game in London in 1975.
India lost the game by 202 runs after England batted first and made 334-4 in 60 overs, the best ODI total at the time.
English spice is followed by Indian stodge, according to the Sunday Telegraph.
Gavaskar had a pitiful total of 36 runs from 174 balls but was still unbeaten. He had one four in an inning.
GS Ramchand, the furious manager of the Indian squad, called it the "most disgraceful and selfish performance I have seen."
He made the excuse that the wicket was too sluggish to play strokes, but he later admitted that was a foolish thing to say given that England had already scored 334 runs. Our sense of national pride is too valuable to be wasted in this way.
Later, Gavaskar said that it was "the worst innings I have ever played" and that his batting "wasn't in conformity with the norms of limited-overs cricket".
An emotional century by Tendulkar
Days after the passing of his father, Tendulkar got a century during the 1999 World Cup.
India had lost to South Africa in the tournament's opening game, and Tendulkar, then 26 years old, learned of his father's passing just before India's game against Zimbabwe. He took a flight to India.
India lost against Zimbabwe again and was now on the verge of being eliminated.
Tendulkar produced a game-changing 140 not out against Kenya in Bristol after his father's burial, helping India to a score of 329-2. Tendulkar then returned to England. India then successfully held Kenya to 235-7, winning by 94 runs.
Tendulkar was the player of the game.
"That [the innings] seemed to me to be what my father would have wanted me to do, and that's what made me decide to go back to London to play the remaining World Cup games," he said. My mind was not always on the game, even though I managed to hit a hundred in the game against Kenya—which is still one of my most prized centuries, one I dedicated to my father. Tendulkar said this in his autobiography Playing It My Way.
Angry spectators and an abandoned game
At 120-8 in the 1996 World Cup in Kolkata, India, chasing 252 on a failing surface, appeared certain to lose.
The enraged Kolkata fans, on the other hand, flung projectiles onto the field and set the stands on fire, forcing the forfeit of the semi-final in March. It was the only occasion a World Cup game was called off due to crowd disturbances, and Sri Lanka ended up winning by default.
One of the most memorable scenes from the competition is the picture of India's unbeaten batsman Vinod Kambli sobbing as he left the field. "I cried because I thought that I had been robbed of a chance to do it [win] for my country," Kambli added.
India's captain, Mohammad Azharuddin, was subject to harsh criticism for opting to take the field first, and his home had to be put under armed security.
The astonishing spell of Nehra
In Durban during the 2003 World Cup, India faced England with a defensive total of 250; it was a respectable total but not necessarily one that would win the game.
Prior to the arrival of Indian speed bowler Ashish Nehra, England was 18-2 after the first six overs.
"What followed was an introduction in the art of seam bowling, angling in from over the middle and keeping it in the narrow erect just outside off," noted cricket writer Siddhartha Vaidyanathan for ESPNCricinfo.
Nehra bowled all of his allotted 10 overs in a row despite having a sore ankle and concluded with incredible figures of 6-23, the highest bowling effort by an Indian in World Cup history.
India triumphed by 82 runs.
A dream collaboration
In the 1999 World Cup, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly scored the first 300-run partnership in one-day cricket, shattering all previous records.
Their partnership set a record for any limited-overs international at the time, scoring an astounding 318 runs in 45 overs.
Ganguly struck 183 off 158 balls, his highest ODI total, with seven sixes and 17 fours. Dravid, who is often gloomy, scored 145 in 129 balls while hitting one six and 17 boundaries.
India scored 373 runs thanks to the partnership, defeating Sri Lanka by 157 runs.
Joss Buttler, an English hitter, claimed in 2021 that this pairing had impacted him.
"They were my earliest years, and watching that game with Ganguly and Dravid scoring great hundreds had an incredible impact," Buttler said to Cricbuzz.
A billion hopes were dashed by the runout.
India, the pre-tournament favorites, were shocked by New Zealand in a thrilling 2019 World Cup semifinal at Old Trafford.
The thundering crowd roar resisted the Kiwis' supremacy when India faltered to 5-3 and 24-4 while chasing 240 for victory on a difficult pitch.
Dhoni maintained the strike as India needed 25 from 11 balls at the start of the 49th over and with three wickets in hand. Now was the time to see if he was still capable of doing it.
Dhoni attempted to maintain the strike by turning for a second, desperate run, but was stopped by a direct hit from Martin Guptill.
Dhoni, one of the best finishers in one-day cricket, was scoring less than one run per ball during the competition. He was tragically out for 50 off 72 balls in his final innings for India.
