Afghanistan’s match against England at Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday night brought back memories of England being beaten by Ireland in 2011 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, in Bengaluru.Of course, there’s a slight difference between the two. Ireland had not beaten a defending World Champion team then.
In Sunday’s case, Afghanistan’s second win will certainly etch its name in the annals of the game as it thrashed England, the defending champions.
That’s why it is said that cricket is a glorious game of uncertainties and that’s why it is also said that till the last ball is bowled… a cricket match can never be predicted.
As far as this trend of upsetting the giants in the One-Day International World Cup is concerned, it all started way back in the summer of 1983.
Believe it or not, when today’s kids who see Rohit Sharma’s willow punishing Pakistan’s bowling attack, they may not have an idea that India had a disastrous start to the World Cups which began way back in 1975. Called the Prudential World Cup for the first three editions, India was done and dusted by the second World Cup four years later in 1979. But as I said, Cricket is a glorious game of huge uncertainties, anything can happen in the gentlemen’s game and that became evident in the fourth match of the tournament in 1983 when India took on West Indies… oops considering the year and India’s cricketing status then… the sentence should read when West Indies took on India in Manchester on June 9, 1983.
Even in India people never hoped against hope about the results, but by 9pm, the All-India Radio bulletin humbly went on to announce India’s first-ever victory in a league match in World Cup and that too defeating the two-time defending champs the West indies by 34 runs!
However, for the record, India’s only previous win in the tournament history actually had come against East Africa in 1975, while on the other hand, West Indies had not lost a single match until that day, winning both the 1975 and the 1979 editions.
And unfortunately, in 2023… West Indies failed to qualify for the World Cup!!!
What a glorious game of uncertainties: History repeated itself on Sunday night when Afghanistan registered their first win by defeating the defending champions England by a whopping 69 runs.
Batting first, Afghanistan had a brilliant start and finish… scoring 284 in 49.5 overs. With the pitch starting to grip and offer turn in the first half, that felt like a good challenge for Jos Buttler and team, especially with the spinners Afghanistan had.
Again in 1983 India went on to reach the final of the Prudential World Cup and met the mighty West Indies. But whatever is destined has to happen.
In the afternoon of June 25, 1983 India scripted history and today it is narrated like a folklore how the battered and bruised Team India (remember Dilip Vengsarkar’s injury in a league match that virtually kept him out of the tournament) held on to their hopes to lift the cup at the balcony of the famed Lord’s.
Also, since then, West Indies has never won the Cup again and now are even out of the tournament, while India grew from strength to strength and today BCCI is among the richest sporting boards in the world.
In 1992, another upset was seen and it was a world cup of many firsts too.
The 1992 World Cup was the first to feature coloured player clothing, white cricket balls and black sight screens, with a number of matches being played under floodlights. It was also the first Cricket World Cup to be held in the southern hemisphere and the first to include South Africa, who had been allowed to re-join the International Cricket Council as a Test-playing nation after the end of Apartheid. For the first time, the World Cup was not held after a four-year gap, but five.
The 1992 edition saw South Africa in the most bizarre fashion… The Proteas had beaten the mighty Aussies in Sydney by 9 wickets.
Allan Donald’s 3/34 in 10 overs saw Allan Border and Co fold up for 170/9.
For starters, the quality of the South African lineup, in 1992, however, did not make it look like rookies, but it may be recalled that South Africa had only just returned to international cricket after more than two decades. Before the 1992 World Cup, South Africa had played only three ODIs, when they came to India and had lost two and won one.
In 2007, when Bangladesh defeated India: Bangladesh got the better of India by five wickets in the group-stage match at Port of Spain, and the result eventually caused the team’s early elimination. Mashrafe Mortaza’s 4/38 put India in a spot as they collapsed to a below-par 191 in 49.3 overs. Bangladesh chased down the target in 48.3 overs with five wickets in hand.
2023: Afghanistan thrashes England convincingly
It was an extremely stunning manner to register your country’s first-ever win against a full-member side in the men’s ODI World Cup. Afghanistan did not just defeat England but they dominated the entire session too. It was just their second win in the competition’s history, with the previous one coming against Scotland.
Jos Buttler, however, had said at the start of the tournament, “I don’t see us as defending champions. We’re very much in the same boat now as everybody sat here on the eve of the tournament trying to win it.”
UPSETS GALORE: 1983: Zimbabwe vs Australia
The 1983 edition saw another upset when Zimbabwe defeated Australia by 13 runs at Trent Bridge on their World Cup debut.
1996: Kenya vs West Indies: Playing their maiden World Cup, Kenya scripted a dramatic upset by defeating West Indies by 73 runs in Pune. This was the first occasion in World Cup history when a non-Test-playing nation defeated a Test-playing nation.
1999: Bangladesh vs Pakistan
Bangladesh beat Pakistan in Northampton. Bangladesh made 223/9, and in reply, Pakistan were bundled out for 161 in 44.3 overs.
(The writer is senior journalist and former Senior Associate Editor, O Heraldo, Goa)
