8 years since today, one glorious evening on April 2, 2011, India won their second world cup in front of a rapturous crowd at the Wankhede beating Sri Lanka in the finals of the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. Prior to that eventful day, India had lifted the WC only once in 1983 (officially called the Prudential Cup ’83) as minnows who beat the mighty West Indies in a thrilling encounter; so magnificent and awe-inspiring was that victory for a generation of cricket fans that they started referring to the conquering side as ‘Kapil’s Devils’. I believe, triumphs in ODI tournaments such as the 1983 World Cup and the 1985 Benson and Hedges World Championship of Cricket that was broadcast live to a worldwide audience enthralled the Indian masses in search for stimulus and stirred them to embrace the sport wholeheartedly, the likes of which we still experience today. In fact, if you ask me, the Benson & Hedges series was the first time that I saw all the games being played under the lights, with a white ball, and all teams wearing coloured clothing. We had to wake up quite early to catch the broadcast in India and it left an indelible impression growing up.
India’s World Cup Hunt
India was in the hunt for the world cup title since 1983 edition and there were some good and not-so-good cricket campaigns starting from 1987 and until 2011, in the process, we also won the inaugural 2007 ICC World Twenty 20 event. However, the one tournament that comes to my memory was the 2003 campaign in South Africa, in that, India had won all their matches but were woefully underprepared to take the Aussies who were a formidable side and the reigning world champs. We had come tantalisingly close to winning the coveted cricket trophy in the finals in which Australia scored a mammoth 359 at the expense of one of the finest bowling attacks in the cricketing world of Zaheer Khan and Javagal Srinath – they went for 154 runs in their combined 17 overs (102 balls); India used 8 bowlers (gulp!). Once the Aussies went past 300 I knew we would end up on the losing side considering they had McGrath, Lee and Bichel who bowl fast and accurate on any pitch in the world.
To my mind, India’s most forgettable world cup campaign has to be the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup played in the West Indies. India, under the captaincy of Rahul “the Wall” Dravid and an uninspiring coach Greg Chappell, was abruptly booted out in the preliminary round itself for the first time in the history of this global event. It was so disastrous for the Indians that they even lost against lower ranked teams such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Interestingly enough, the 2007 WC edition had 16 participating national teams divided into 4 groups — the most for any world cups, which have been reduced to just 10 teams for the 2019 competition in England and Wales.
Triumphant, At Last!
Soon after its unceremonious performance and hurried exit from the 2007 tournament, there was a glimmer of hope for redemption. India had won the inaugural World Twenty20 that year beating Pakistan in the finals, while the next World Cup was being jointly hosted by India-Bangladesh-Sri Lanka with most matches being played in India, although until that edition, no other host country had won the world cup.
India had a glorious start to their campaign scoring a winning total of 370 runs against Bangladesh which remained the highest total in the entire tournament, Sehwag contributed with a well made 175 (140) which was the highest individual score of the competition. Under the captaincy of MS Dhoni who had famously scripted the 2007 World Twenty20 win, they reached the Finals of the tournament for the third time. The Lankan score of 274 was the highest total in WC history finals to be chased ever, which India eventually did with 10 balls and 6 wickets to spare! Yuvraj Singh was adjudged Player of the Series.
Moving forward, India is all set to fight it out in England and Wales and capture the imagination of a billion fans once again, although looking back at some of the individual performances against Australia at the recently concluded home series I’m keeping my fingers crossed about their form going into the world cup. But hey, this is India, and as we all are aware, the team is quite (in)famous in springing up surprises when we least expect it, much like their triumphant campaigns in 1983 Prudential Cup or the 2007 World Twenty20 when nobody predicted their win. So let’s wait and watch!
