July 3 (India Today) – India beat Bangladesh in their penultimate league match of World Cup 2019 in Birmingham to sail into the semi-finals on Tuesday. This is the 3rd time in succession that India have qualified for the last-4 stage of the sport’s most prestigious tournament.
Incidentally, it’s also the 7th time in 12 editions of the World Cup that India have reached the semis – 1983, 1987, 1996, 2003, 2011, 2015 being the other instances. Notably, India have prevailed in 3 out of the 7 semi-final appearances while going on to win the title twice.
The latest qualification also marks the most fruitful decade for India at the World Cup as they have not missed out on a semi-final spot even once since the 2011 edition.
Comparing India’s achievement with the other teams, one finds Australia being the only side to have had more semi-final qualifications – 8 times and their neighbours New Zealand tying India with 7.
The 1st time India reached the semis of a World Cup was also the same year they lifted their maiden trophy under Kapil Dev. Over the next few days, India will be hoping for similar returns to that of the 2011 World Cup where they beat arch rivals Pakistan to claim a place in the final at Wankhede. The rest as everyone knows is history. Four years later, they remained unbeaten till the semis before being defeated by eventual winners Australia.
India’s dominance in the ODI format in the past decade is also evident from the fact that the World Cup 2019 semis qualification marks the 6th consecutive ICC event where India have reached this stage, beginning at the Champions Trophy 2013.
Here is the list of all these ICC events:
Champions Trophy 2013 (Winner)
World T20 2014 (Runners up)
World Cup 2015 (Semifinal)
World T20 2016 (Semifinal)
Champions Trophy 2017 (Runners up)
World Cup 2019 (Semifinal)*
India will next play Sri Lanka on July 6 in their last league game before playing in the semi-finals. India’s opponents during the semis are not yet decided as the qualification scenarios for the 2 teams apart from Australia and India will only get clearer over the next few matches.
