A look at India’s ODI performances in the series immediately preceding World Cups

Many fans are eagerly looking forward to seeing how India performs in the ongoing Carlton Mid Tri-Series, expecting the series to set the tone for how the team would fare in the 2015 Cricket World Cup. The poor start to the tournament, which has seen the side crash to consecutive defeats to Australia and England, has raised question marks on the team’s chances of defending the World Cup title that they won in 2011.But if history is any proof, then India’s performance in the ODI series preceding a World Cup has almost always never reflected in India’s show in the sport’s pinnacle event. But the tri-series does give India a chance to acclimatize to the conditions in Australia, one of the co-hosts, something which the team hasn’t always had the fortune of getting.Here’s a look at India’s performance in the ODI series just prior to the World Cup since the inaugural edition in 1975 and how it compares to India’s eventual showing in the World Cup:

#1 1975 World Cup

Preceding ODI Series: Prudential Trophy – England vs India in July 1974

Result: India lost the 2-match ODI series 0-2

India made their ODI bow with the Prudential Trophy against England in July 1974. While the first World Cup was held almost a year after this series, India didn’t play any ODIs in between the two events.

India had become a force to reckon with in Test cricket, but this relatively new limited-overs format of cricket didn’t suit the team, and unsurprisingly, they lost both the ODIs in the series. The team batted first in both matches, which were 55 overs per side, and the English chased down the targets each time fairly easily. There were fighting knocks by Brijesh Patel, Ajit Wadekar and Ashok Mankad while Eknath Solkar was tidy with the ball.

It didn’t surprise many when India made an unceremonious exit after the group stage in the 1975 World Cup, with only one win over minnows East Africa during the tournament.

India’s performance in the WC: Eliminated after the Group Stages

#2 1979 World Cup

Preceding ODI Series: Pakistan vs India in October/November 1978

Result: India lost the 3-match ODI series 1-2

India toured neighbours Pakistan for their first ODI series in Asia, and the teams played 3 ODIs which allocated 40 overs for each side.

India won the first match by an agonizingly close margin of 4 runs, with Mohinder Amarnath starring with an all-round performance. The second game saw India being dismissed for a paltry score of 79, which was easily chased down by the opponents, and Pakistan’s score of 205 in the third game proved too much for the Indian batsmen to chase.

The 1979 World Cup saw India crashing out after the group stage with no wins (including an embarrassing defeat to the then non-Test playing Sri Lanka).

India’s performance in the WC: Eliminated after the Group Stages

#3 1983 World Cup

Preceding ODI Series: West Indies vs India in March/April 1983

Result: India lost the 3-match ODI series 1-2

While India lost the 3-game ODI series against West Indies preceding the 1983 World Cup, they would have taken confidence out of the fact that they beat the mighty West Indians for the first time ever in an ODI. It is popularly said that the seeds of the win in the 1983 World Cup were sown in Guyana, where the Indians pulled off a stunning win which ultimately gave them the belief that they could defeat any opposition and aided their cause in winning the World Cup.

Not much was expected from the Indians, who had a dismal record in the ODIs, and unsurprisingly they lost the first match, with no batsman crossing the score of 30. The second match was played at Albion Sports Complex, Guyana – a ground which had a history of low scores by teams batting first. West Indies skipper Clive Lloyd won the toss and asked the visitors to bat first.

In a game reduced to 47-overs each side, Sunil Gavaskar, more known for his batting in Test cricket, played one of his finest ODI knocks as he scored 90 runs from 117 deliveries, and put on 93 for the first wicket with Ravi Shastri. Kapil Dev scored a blazing 72 off just 38 deliveries with 3 sixes and 7 boundaries to help India reach 282-5, which was the team’s highest ODI total back then.

Kapil followed up with some fine seam bowling along with Balwinder Sandhu and Madan Lal to put brakes on the Windies run chase, and Shastri picked up 3 wickets to help India secure a famous win by a margin of 27 runs.

The Windies bounced back to win the third game, and with that the series 2-1. But despite the final result, the series saw the Indian side finally come of age in the one-day format and they confirmed this by becoming the world champions a couple of months later.

India’s performance in the WC: Winners

#4 1987 World Cup

Preceding ODI Series: Sharjah Cup in April 1987

Result: India won 2 out of their 3 matches, but it wasn’t enough for them to win the trophy

India followed up their 1983 World Cup success with another famous win at the 1985 World Championship of Cricket in Australia and some more ODI series victories. With the country hosting the next edition of the World Cup in 1987, many tipped the side to defend their World Cup title.

The series preceding the 1987 World Cup was the 4-nation Sharjah Cup, which had India, Pakistan, England and Australia participating. India won the first two matches against England and Australia, chasing both times, with some impressive batting by Kapil Dev, K Srikkanth, Mohammad Azharuddin and Sunil Gavaskar.

A win against Pakistan in the third and final game would have sealed the cup for India, but a fine spell of 4-27 by Imran Khan restricted India to 183-8 (with Dilip Vengsarkar scoring a fighting 95*) and Pakistan chased down the target with ease, in 41.4 overs.

India’s total of 183 meant they had to win the game or else they’d be behind England in NRR. Had Pakistan completed their chase in 32.4 overs, they would have overtaken England in the NRR. So ultimately, the unfancied England won the Sharjah Cup.

Eventually, it was England who knocked out India in the semi-final stage of the 1987 World Cup, thereby ending the host nation’s dreams of retaining the World Cup.

India’s performance in the WC: Semi-finalists

#5 1992 World Cup

Preceding ODI Series: Benson & Hedges World Series in December 1991/January 1992

Result: Runners-up

The 1992 World Cup was hosted in the Trans-Tasman for the first time, and the Benson & Hedges World Series involving hosts Australia, West Indies and India and the Australia-India Test series in the Aussie summer gave India an ideal chance to get acclimatized to the local conditions in their preparation for the World Cup.

India lost the 5-match Test series 0-4 and reached the final of the tri-series, before ultimately crashing out after the round-robin stage in the World Cup.

India had a good start to the tri-series, as they bravely managed to tie the opener against the Windies while defending a paltry total of 126, and then beat the hosts Australia by 107 runs in the second game. The following matches proved to be a mixed bag for India, but the team managed to qualify for the finals, before being blanked 2-0 in the finals by the hosts.

Sachin Tendulkar, who was just 19 at the time, topped the run-scoring charts for India (and second overall behind David Boon) with 401 runs from 10 innings. Manoj Prabhakar was India’s leading wicket-taker (and third overall) with 12 wickets from 10 matches.

India couldn’t take advantage of getting playing time in Australia before the 1992 World Cup as the team failed to progress to the semi-finals from the round-robin stage in the event.

India’s performance in the WC: Eliminated after the Round-Robin Stage

#6 1996 World Cup

Preceding ODI Series: India vs New Zealand in November 1995

Result: India won the 6-match ODI series 3-2

The World Cup returned to the Indian subcontinent in 1996 and just before the event, New Zealand toured India. After winning the 3-match Test series 1-0, India won the ODI series 3-2 in a see-saw battle.

Manoj Prabhakar starred for India with a fine all-round performance in the ODIs as he opened the batting as well as bowling for the side and was the team’s leading run-scorer and wicket-taker.

The 6-match series was tied 2-2 going into the final game at Brabourne Stadium (the third game at Margao was abandoned due to a wet outfield and bad light). The Indian bowlers restricted the Kiwis to a meagre 126, and the batsmen chased down the target with relative ease to seal the series for the host nation.

India replicated their semi-finals finish of the 1987 World Cup which was held in the subcontinent, this time losing to eventual winners Sri Lanka.

India’s performance in the WC: Semi-finalists

#7 1999 World Cup

Preceding ODI Series: Coca-Cola Cup in April 1999

Result: Runners-up

Just before the 1999 World Cup, the WC hosts England, Pakistan and India faced off in a tri-series in Sharjah. After losing their first game against Pakistan, India won three back-to-back matches to make it to the final. All hopes of going into the World Cup with a trophy fizzled out when the Indian batting line-up was dismissed for a paltry 125 (which included a first-ball duck for Rahul Dravid, India’s batting mainstay in the series) and the opponents comfortably chased the target with 22 overs to spare.

India went on to have a lacklustre World Cup where a shock defeat to Zimbabwe ultimately proved very costly and the team was knocked out after the Super Six stage. Dravid took his batting form to the World Cup and finished the tournament as the top run-scorer.

India’s performance in the WC: Eliminated after Super Six Stage

#8 2003 World Cup

Preceding ODI Series: New Zealand vs India in December 2002/January 2003

Result: India lost the 7-game ODI series 2-5

India didn’t have the best build-up to the 2003 World Cup as the team endured a disastrous tour of New Zealand just before the marquee tournament. The Kiwis whitewashed the visitors 2-0 in the Test series and then won the ODI series 5-2.

India were dismissed for a total less than 125 on four occasions in the 7-match ODI series, and made more than 200 only once. The two victories that India tasted in the series were both chases of low targets which were near-chokes due to batting collapses and won by a very narrow margin.

Virender Sehwag was easily the best player in either side as he top-scored in the series with 299 runs from 7 innings (next best was 157 runs by Stephen Fleming), but got almost no support from his fellow Indian batsmen. Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan scalped many wickets as the Indian bowling did quite well in helpful conditions, only to be let down by the batting.

Given the dismal performance in the New Zealand tour, followed by a lacklustre start to the World Cup, not many tipped India to do well in the 2003 edition of the event, but an impressive run of results meant that the team reached its second final in World Cup history, which they lost to the superior Australians.

India’s performance in the WC: Runners-up

#9 2007 World Cup

Preceding ODI Series: India vs Sri Lanka in February 2007

Result: India won the 4-game ODI series 2-1

Sri Lanka visited India for an ODI series just before the 2007 World Cup. India, who were fresh from a series win over West Indies not too long before, saw themselves trailing 1-0 to the Sri Lankans after the first game was abandoned due to rain and the visitors won the second game in a thriller.

But the Indians bounced back to win the last two games to seal the series 2-1 with Zaheer Khan impressing with the ball and most batsmen finding form.

The back-to-back ODI series wins at home raised hopes of India improving on their 2003 WC performance, but the 2007 World Cup proved to be an absolute nightmare for the team. Defeats to Bangladesh and later Sri Lanka, which India had outclassed just a month before, meant that the team had an embarrassing early exit from the tournament.

India’s performance in the WC: Eliminated after the Group Stages

#10 2011 World Cup

Preceding ODI Series: South Africa vs India in January 2011

Result: India lost the 5-game ODI series 2-3

Hoping to redeem themselves after a miserable and totally forgettable 2007 World Cup, India looked to take advantage of hosting the event in 2011 to do well.

But before that, there was a tough tour to South Africa scheduled and memories of the thrashing that the team got in New Zealand prior to the 2003 edition were still fresh. However, the side led by MS Dhoni did admirably well to draw the 3-match Test series 1-1 as hopes rose of a first ODI series win in the African nation.

After being defeated comprehensively in the first game, India fought back to win the second and third games and took a 2-1 lead in the series courtesy of brilliant efforts by Munaf Patel and Yusuf Pathan, respectively. The last two matches were affected by rain, with South Africa winning both on Duckworth-Lewis Method, but not before fighting knocks by Virat Kohli and Yusuf, who scored an outsanding 105 off just 70 balls in a losing cause in the final ODI.

While India lost the series, there were plenty of positives for the side to take from the series, which they consolidated upon and went on to lift the World Cup trophy for the second time.

India’s performance in the WC: Winners