Longest streaks in Cricket World Cup history

The 2015 Cricket World Cup saw India defeating Pakistan on 15th February, yet again, in a high profile match. The Indians extended their unbeaten run against their arch-rivals with their head-to-head World Cup record currently standing at 6-0 in favour of the men in blue. However, this isn’t the best head-to-head record for a team against a particular opposition in World Cup history.This is the 11th edition of the World Cup and quite a few records have been set at this ongoing tournament. We take a look at all the longest streaks in the history of World Cups including most consecutive tons, longest winning and unbeaten streaks along with dubious honours like most consecutive ducks and losing streaks in the following slides:

#1 Longest winning streak Australia (25 matches)

The mighty Aussie sides led by Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting dominated world cricket for more than a decade starting from 1999. The team enjoyed a run of consecutive victories in 25 games from 1999 to 2011.

The streak started in the final of the 1999 World Cup where Australia, who had tied the semifinal against South Africa, thrashed Pakistan by 8 wickets to lift the trophy. Following that win, the Aussies had a complete domination of the world event in the next decade, and the team won every game they played in the 2003 and 2007 editions of World Cup.

The team continued its winning streak in 2011 too as it beat Zimbabwe and New Zealand in the first two matches, before rain led to the game against Sri Lanka being abandoned, and with it the 25 game consecutive winning run came to an end.

#2 Longest unbeaten streak Australia (34 matches)

Along with the 25 match winning streak, the Aussies also enjoyed a 34-match unbeaten run between 1999 and 2011, in which they won 32 out of 34 matches (with one tie – against South Africa in 1999 and one no-result – against Sri Lanka in 2011).

The run began after back-to-back losses to New Zealand and Pakistan in 1999 which threatened an early exit for the Aussies, and the team came back strongly to beat Bangladesh and followed it up by winning all their games en route to the semifinals. A historic tie against South Africa halted the winning run, but Australia progressed to the final on virtue of a higher finish than the Proteas in Super Six.

The final saw the start of the 25 game winning run, which came to an end in the rain-affected game against Sri Lanka. Australia won two more games after that match, before a 4-wicket loss to Pakistan ended the 35-game unbeaten run of the Kangaroos.

#3 Longest losing streak Zimbabwe (18 matches)

Zimbabwe had a dream World Cup debut in 1983 as they beat the mighty Australians by 13 runs to register a huge upset in their first game. However the side had to wait for almost 9 years for their next win in a World Cup game, and they lost 18 games on a trot.

Zimbabwe came close to winning twice during this period – first in 1983 when they’d reduced India to 17-5 before a majestic knock of 175* by Kapil Dev changed the course of the match, and second in 1992 when debutant Andy Flower’s century against Sri Lanka helped his side score 312, but the Lankans chased down the stiff target with relative ease.

The losing run finally came to an end in the 1992 World Cup when Zimbabwe beat England in a low-scoring thriller with Eddo Brandes starring in the match bagging 4 wickets.

#4 Most consecutive centuries M Waugh, Dravid, Anwar, Ponting, Hayden, De Villiers (2 centuries each)

The World Cup is yet to see a batsman score centuries in three consecutive innings. There have been 6 players with two centuries in consecutive innings so far. Below is the list:

BatsmanTeamScoresOpponents
Mark WaughAustralia130, 126Kenya, India (both 1996)
Rahul DravidIndia104*, 145Kenya, Sri Lanka (both 1999)
Saeed AnwarPakistan103, 113*Zimbabwe, New Zealand (both 1999)
Ricky PontingAustralia140*, 113India (2003), Scotland (2007)
Matthew HaydenAustralia101, 158South Africa, West Indies (both 2007)
AB De VilliersSouth Africa107, 134West Indies, Netherlands (both 2011)

#5 Most consecutive fifties G Fowler, Sidhu, Boon, Tendulkar, G Smith (4 fifty+ scores each)

Five batsmen have scored 50+ scores in 4 consecutive World Cup innings. Sachin Tendulkar has achieved this feat twice. Below are the details:

BatsmanTeamScoresOpponents
Graeme FowlerEngland78*, 69, 69, 81*Pakistan, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka (all 1983)
Navjot SidhuIndia73, 75, 51, 55Australia, New Zealand, Australia, Zimbabwe (all 1987)
David BoonAustralia93, 65, 75, 100Zimbabwe, Pakistan, England (1987), New Zealand (1992)
Sachin TendulkarIndia127*, 70, 90, 137Kenya, West Indies, Australia, Sri Lanka (all 1996)
Sachin Tendulkar India81, 152, 50, 98Zimbabwe, Namibia, England, Pakistan (all 2003)
Graeme SmithSouth Africa67, 91, 74, 59Netherlands, Scotland, Australia, Sri Lanka (all 2007)

Note: Sidhu didn’t bat in a game against Zimbabwe, which would have been the third innings in the list otherwise. Since he scored fifties in the four consecutive innings in which he batted, he is included in the list.

#6 Most consecutive ducks De Groot, Ngoche (3 times each)

Shem Ngoche after being dismissed by Lasith Malinga for a duck

Nicholas De Groot of Canada and Shem Ngoche of Kenya hold the dubious record of maximum consecutive ducks in World Cup history.

De Groot got out thrice without disturbing the scorers in consecutive matches in 2003 World Cup in games against Bangladesh, Kenya and Sri Lanka. Similarly, Ngoche did a repeat of this in the 2011 edition, when he was dismissed for a duck in consecutive matches against New Zealand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

#7 Most consecutive five-wicket hauls Gilmour, de Mel (2 matches)

Gary Gilmour

Gary Gilmour played only 5 ODIs in his career. But his performances in the semifinal and final of the 1975 World Cup sealed his legend in ODI history. Playing his first game of the tournament, Gilmour dismantled the English batting with a spell of 6-14 to seal victory for Australia. Gilmour followed it up with a return of 5-48 against the West Indies in final, though this time his performance wasn’t enough to win the game for his side.

Gilmour feat was matched by Sri Lankan Ashantha de Mel in the 1983 World Cup with bowling figures of 5-39 against Pakistan and 5-32 against New Zealand in consecutive games.

#8 Most consecutive four-wicket hauls Afridi (3 matches)

While no bowler has taken five wickets each game in three consecutive matches in World Cup history, Shahid Afridi came close to the feat in 2011 when he had bowling figures of 5-16, 4-34 and 5-23 against Kenya, Sri Lanka and Canada respectively in consecutive games. This return makes him the only bowler with three four-wicket hauls in consecutive World Cup matches.

Afridi picked up four wickets in a match once again later in the tournament (against West Indies) and ended the World Cup as the joint highest wicket-taker with 21 wickets.

#9 Best winning and unbeaten run against a side Pakistan against Sri Lanka (7-0)

While the 6-0 record that the Indian team has against Pakistan is well known, a lesser known statistic is that incidentally the Pakistanis have the best record for a team having the best unbeaten (all wins) run against another side. The Pakistan team has played the Sri Lankans seven times in World Cup history, and have won every game.

The sides first met in the 1975 World Cup, where Pakistan won by a margin of 192 runs. The two sides met twice in the 1983 and 1987 editions each where Pakistan continued their winning run. En route to their title win in 1992, Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by 4 wickets in the round robin game, and maintained the streak in 2011 where they Sri Lanka on their home ground (Colombo) by 11 runs.

#10 Consecutive successful 300+ chases Ireland (thrice)

Thrice in Ireland’s short World Cup history have the side been given a target in the excess of 300 runs. And remarkably the Irish have successfully chased down the target each time, and are the only team with 3 successful run-chases chasing a 300+ target in World Cup history. (In fact, until Sri Lanka’s recent successful chase of 312 against England in the 2015 World Cup, no other team had managed a victorious 300+ run chase even twice!)

Ireland shocked the cricketing world with a stunning win over England in the 2011 World Cup, where they beat England’s total of 327, and then followed it up with a successful run-chase of the target of 307 set by the Netherlands in the same tournament.

In the 2015 World Cup, Ireland have continued the trend of chasing down 300+ target as they upset the West Indies with a 4 wicket win, by scoring 307 in the second innings.

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Edited by Staff Editor