SA Vs IND: India will face the Proteas challenge today in the finals of the T20 World Cup 2024 in Barbados. The Men in Blue have been undefeated in this edition of the ICC event of the shortest format. India has won the matches against Ireland, Pakistan, and the United States of America to progress in the Super 8 round.
Then in the Super 8 stage, Rohit Sharma and his men also defeated teams like Afghanistan, Banglades noh, Australia and the defending champions, England to be in the finals of this edition. India has reached the finals twice in the T20 World Cup history. In 2007, they won the title in South Africa. However, in 2014, Sri Lanka defeated MSD and co to win their first title of the shortest format.
Today we shall bring the three instances where the Men in Blue had won all the matches of the league stages and the games in the semi-finals as well. But they failed to claim the final glory of ICC tournaments in the One Day Internationals and T20 International format –
1. 2023 ODI World Cup –
India hosted the ICC mega event of the fifty-overs format last year. The Indian fans anticipated that the team under Rohit Sharma would repeat the magic which MS Dhoni had created in 2011, the last time when the ODI World Cup was played in India.
India was the first host country to win the ODI World Cup in their home nation in 2011 and in 2023, Rohit and co also reached the finals of the tournament. India had won all the matches in the league stage. They defeated New Zealand in the semi-finals as well. But their performance in the finals was below par and they lost by six wickets in Ahmedabad.
2. 2014 T20 World Cup In Bangladesh –
Bangladesh hosted the 2014 edition of the T20 World Cup. Sri Lanka had won that tournament. But India had reached the finals that year and that too by winning all the matches in the league stages and a semi-final clash versus South Africa as well.
But in the finals, the Sri Lankan tigers roared and also took the revenge of the 2011 final loss versus India in Mumbai. India had managed to post just 130 runs on board with Virat Kohli as the top scorer in that game. He scored 77 runs and the current skipper Rohit Sharma was the second-highest run-getter with 29 runs. Sri Lanka won that contest with ease by six wickets as they chased that score down in 17.5 overs.
3. 2002 ICC Champions Trophy –
India and Sri Lanka had to share the Champions Trophy in 2002 because the rains played a game of a spoilsport. India and Sri Lanka had won all the matches to reach the final stage of the fifty-overs format in Sri Lanka. That Indian team was led by Sourav Ganguly, who also became the President of the BCCI later and Sanath Jayasuriya was the captain of the Lankan team that time.
India’s first-ever ICC glory was in 1983. But in that edition of the fifty-overs World Cup, Kapil Dev and his men had lost matches in the league stages. The same history was also repeated in title wins of 2007, 2011 and 2013. In 2007, India had lost to New Zealand, in 2011, the Proteas beat India and in 2013 Sri Lanka chased a mammoth score to win that game against MSD and co during the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013.
Still, India ended up as the ICC title winners of those above-mentioned years. Can India continue their unbeaten run in the T20 World Cup 2024 even today? Or will there be another heartbreak just like last year’s two ICC finals which Rohit and Co lost against the Aussies?
