Comments
South Africa may be called perennial chokers but do you know that New Zealand was also slotted in the same list.
Until they defeated South Africa in the 2011 World Cup, New Zealand had never won a knock-out match, just like South Africa.
The black caps won only one out of their seven knock-out encounters since 1975.
A total of 28 knock-out matches have been played in the cricket world cup since inception in 1975. These include the two semi finals in every edition and the four quarter finals each in 1996 and 2011.
Nine teams have played knock matches and Kenya is the only non-test playing nation in the list.
Sri Lanka has the best win loss record in the knock-out stage. Of six matches played they have won five. India and Australia are jointly second with five wins in seven knock-out matches.
West Indies have won 75 per cent of their knock-out winning four of the six that they played.
Pakistan won three in eight appearances while England won three of seven.
Kenya and South Africa are the only ones never to have won any knock-out game in the world cup.
When bilateral matches among various countries are considered, several oddities emerge. For instance, Sri Lanka has never defeated Pakistan in a world cup match and India has never beaten South Africa and Pakistan have never got past India.
When India plays Sri Lanka in this year's world cup final, they have to disprove a few things of the past. Of the three world cup matches featuring India at the Wankhede Stadium, their lone win is against Zimbabwe in 1987.
They lost to England in the 1987 semi-finals, a knock-out game, and to Australia in 1996 in a league fixture.
Though India has bested Pakistan five on five times, it had never walked away with the trophy after defeating Pakistan.
The last thing to watch out for is Sri Lanka's win loss record against India in the world cup. In seven games, the Lankan lions have beaten India four times and lost twice with one game being washed off.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.