Indian cricket team’s journey in Cricket World Cup was brilliant

In the final of the World Cup 2023 played in Ahmedabad on 19 November, Australia may have won the World Cup by winning easily over India by 6 wickets, but the performance of the Indian team this time in the entire World Cup match was excellent, which is always remembered. Will go. By defeating Australia by 6 wickets in the very first match, the Indian team had made a great start to its victory in the World Cup, which ended only with the defeat by 6 wickets at the hands of Australia in the final match. However, Rohit Sharma’s team broke many such records in the total 11 matches of the World Cup and achieved some new heights, which India had been waiting for for a long time. The biggest record was to win 10 consecutive matches. This is a new record for India’s most consecutive wins in any ICC World Cup. Earlier in 2003 and 2015, India had achieved 8 consecutive wins. However, the record for most wins of 11 in a single tournament is in the name of Australia, which made this record in 2003 and 2007. Even though the Australian team has become the world champion this time, just as the Indian team was not only winning continuously in the World Cup since the beginning, but was also successful in breaking the morale of the opposition teams by continuously winning all the matches by huge margins. Looking at that, it would not be wrong to say that the strongest team of this time’s World Cup was the Indian team. The batting of the Indian team which was once known as ‘Fab Five’, this time the bowling of the same Indian team played a brilliant role in achieving success in 10 consecutive matches. Throughout the World Cup, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah emerged as the uncrowned kings of the most dangerous pace and seam attack, while the pair of Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav emerged as the most dangerous spin bowlers. While Ricky Ponting called it India’s most dangerous bowling attack of all time, former England cricketer Nasser Hussain called it the ‘Fab Five’.

In the first match, India defeated Australia by 6 wickets. After that, in the second match, Afghanistan was defeated by 8 wickets and in the third match, Pakistan was not only defeated by 7 wickets but the entire Pakistani team was defeated in the 31st over itself. India won the fourth match against Bangladesh by 7 wickets, and the fifth match against New Zealand by 4 wickets. The sixth match was won by England by 100 runs, in the seventh match India won the match by 302 runs, bowling out Sri Lanka for only 55 runs. Achieved consecutive big wins in the World Cup by defeating South Africa by 243 runs in the 8th match, Netherlands by 160 runs in the 9th match and New Zealand by 70 runs in the 10th match (semi-final). In the entire World Cup tournament, Mohammed Shami took the maximum 24 wickets, Jasprit Bumrah 20, Ravindra Jadeja 16, Kuldeep Yadav 15 and Mohammed Siraj 14. This World Cup became memorable for fast bowler Mohammed Shami. Actually, at the beginning of the World Cup, Shami was not included in the eleven of the Indian team, Shardul Thakur was given priority by the team management in his place, but when Shami got a chance to play in the World Cup, he made every effort by taking five wickets in the very first match. Had surprised someone. Shami took 7 wickets in the semi-final match against New Zealand. However, Shami played only 11 matches of the World Cup and took the Indian team to new heights by taking 24 wickets. Shubman Gill also got the top position in the ICC ODI rankings in the World Cup, ahead of Pakistan’s Babar Azam.

India’s star batsman Virat Kohli has even made some records in this World Cup, which seem impossible to break. He also won the ‘Player of the Tournament’ award in the World Cup. He has become the third Indian player to win this award in the World Cup. Before him, this award was received by Sachin Tendulkar and former legendary all-rounder Yuvraj Singh. Sachin won this award in World Cup 2003 and Yuvraj won this award in World Cup 2011. However, Kohli appeared to be in a different touch throughout the World Cup. He not only scored 765 runs in 11 matches at an average of 95.62 and strike rate of 90.31 but also played three centuries and 6 half-centuries. Even though the Indian team lost in the final, Kohli was successful in scoring a half-century in that match also. In that match, Kohli scored 54 runs in 63 balls with the help of 4 fours. He scored a historic century in the semi-finals, with which he became the first player in the world to score 50 ODI centuries. In the semi-final match of the World Cup played at the packed Wankhede ground in Mumbai, in front of players like Sachin Tendulkar and David Beckham, Virat Kohli left behind the great cricketer master blaster Sachin Tendulkar and created the record of being the batsman who has scored most centuries in the ODI format. . Apart from this, he has also become the player who has scored the most runs in any single edition of the World Cup. Before him, no player could cross the 700 mark in a season. Sachin Tendulkar had scored the highest number of 673 runs in the 2003 World Cup, but Virat created a new record in this matter by scoring 765 runs in 11 matches in this tournament, breaking Sachin’s record of scoring the most runs in a World Cup. Now no other player has more runs than him in any single World Cup. Virat has 3 centuries and 6 half-centuries in these 11 matches. He has also become the first Indian player to score more than 50 runs in the semi-finals and final. Even though India’s attempt to become world champion once again remained incomplete by losing in the World Cup final and undoubtedly it shocked the cricket lovers across India, but in any sport, victory and defeat are inevitable. Anyway, cricket is not called ‘Cricket Bychance’ for nothing. In fact, this is a game in which no one can confidently predict when a single ball will change the course of the entire match. Therefore, the Indian team will have to learn the art of winning such competitions with patience in this difficult time by closely analyzing the continuous successes and failures in the World Cup and move forward towards creating another new history with high spirits.

– Yogesh Kumar Goyal

(The author is a senior journalist continuously active in journalism for 33 years)