World Cup 2023: India's 100 per cent record, England's capitulation and other takeaways from round-robin stage

The 2023 Cricket World Cup witnessed a lot of defining moments during the round-robin stage, which ended on Sunday.

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Hosts India maintained their 100 per cent record in the tournament, with nine wins in as many games, whereas Afghanistan were at one point serious contenders for the semi-finals before missing out on it.

Netherlands, meanwhile, were in the reckoning for a spot in the 2025 Champions Trophy, before relinquishing their spot to Bangladesh following a heavy defeat to India in their final league game on Sunday.

With the round-robin stage done, it’s time for the semi-finals, followed by the final. India will take on New Zealand in the first semi-final in Mumbai on Wednesday, whereas South Africa face Australia in the second semi-final on Thursday. The final will be held on 19 November at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

With the semi-finals still a couple of days away, it provides us a chance to look back at the group stage of the World Cup gone by. Here are a few takeaways:

India’s 100 per cent record

India were always going to be favourites given that this was a home World Cup, probably nobody saw their 100 per cent win record in the league stage coming.

India finished the league stage as table-toppers, with nine wins in as many matches, to end with 18 points. They began with a six-wicket victory over five-time champions Australia, before going onto get the better of Pakistan, and later thumping Sri Lanka. The Men in Blue also ended their long winless run against New Zealand, beating the Kiwis by four wickets.

Come the semi-finals, India will look to get revenge against the Black Caps, hoping to bury the ghosts of the 2019 World Cup semi-finals.

Special mention to India’s pace trio of Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, who have taken a combined tally of 45 wickets so far.

England’s capitulation

England’s plan of “defending” the World Cup with an attacking mindset did not go well. In fact, it all went downhill for Jos Buttler and Co right from game one, when they lost to New Zealand by nine wickets.

Barring Dawid Malan and Ben Stokes, and Joe Root at the start of the World Cup, England’s batters failed to step up to the occasion, and it was the batters who were the cause for England’s defeat in most games.

England managed only just one win (Against Bangladesh) in their first seven matches, before ending their five-match winless run against Netherlands, when Ben Stokes scored his first World Cup century.

England were officially knocked out of the World Cup following a 33-run loss to Australia in Ahmedabad, with Dawid Malan and Ben Stokes’ fifties going in vain.

Batting records tumble

This one needs no introduction. Virat Kohli, arguably the best batter of his generation in international cricket, would go onto slam a record-equalling 49^th ODI century during India’s game against South Africa, going level with Sachin Tendulkar.

And of course, not to forget Glenn Maxwell’s miraculous 201* against Afghanistan in Mumbai, where he became the first non-opener to score a double century in ODIs.

Aiden Markram also registered the fastest century by a batter in Cricket World Cup history, getting to the milestone in just 49 deliveries against Sri Lanka.

In the same math, South Africa would go onto post a total of 428, which is also the biggest team total in Cricket World Cup history.

BCCI’s mess of tickets

Despite some classic encounters on the field, off the field, the BCCI had problems of their own. One of those major issues were the sale of tickets ahead of the marquee India-Pakistan clash that took place in Ahmedabad on 14 October.

The schedule for the World Cup was only announced in late June, and that too underwent several changes before the final schedule was released on 9 August.

This created panic among fans who were travelling to the venue, and to add more to the confusion, the BCCI released 14,000 tickets for the India-Pakistan game, less than a week from the contest, and announced a fourth phase of ticket sales for the match on 11 October, three days from the contest.

This did not go down well with fans, who slammed the BCCI for mismanagement ahead of the match.

Despite the ticketing troubles, fans gathered in large numbers to witness the contest at the Narendra Modi stadium, with more than 100,000 fans attending the match.

Afghanistan, Netherlands make a case for more teams

Despite not making the semi-finals, both Afghanistan and Netherlands had their moments during the World Cup.

Afghanistan began the World Cup with defeats to Bangladesh and India, but made a case for the semi-finals with wins over England, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Netherlands.

However, a defeat to South Africa and a win for New Zealand against Sri Lanka would see the Afghans miss out on the semis and finish in sixth place with eight points.

Netherlands, meanwhile, would give up a big fight against Pakistan before going down by 81 runs. However, the Dutch would go onto stun South Africa (38 runs) and Bangladesh (87 runs) during the league stage.

Fourteen teams will take part in the 2027 World Cup in South Africa, and it’s safe to say that Afghanistan and Netherlands have shown why the Associate or smaller nations need to be included in major tournaments.