The history of the cricket World Cup is full of David and Goliath stories. Smaller teams get to fight against the bigger names, and sometimes, they make it count, much to the surprise of cricket fans around the globe, and of course, bookmakers.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane and revisit some World Cup classics where underdogs stunned the big guns.
India defied the odds to make it to the final, in the first place. They’d seen off Australia, Zimbabwe and the West Indies in the group stage, but few fancied Kapil Dev’s men to get past England in the semi-final.
India silenced the doubters with a composed six-wicket win against the home team, proving their group stage form was not just a lucky break. It was already a defining moment for Indian cricket, but Kapil and company had an even bigger surprise in store.
Back-to-back world champions West Indies were the runaway favourites to lift the trophy at Lord’s. After the first innings, it looked all but certain that the Caribbean side was on course for a historic hat-trick.
The fearsome West Indies pace trio of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall tore through India’s batting line-up and restricted them to only 183 runs.
But then, Mohinder Amarnath (3–12) and Madan Lal (3–31) choked the life out of the West Indies' star-studded batting line-up. Viv Richards top-scored with 33, but it was far from enough. West Indies were 44 runs short of victory when Amarnath sent Holding back to the pavilion.
Pakistan are often labelled the most unpredictable side in men’s cricket – but even with this in mind, few cricket betting sites backed them to slip up in this one.
The 1992 champions opened their campaign with a loss to West Indies, so they needed to avoid defeats against Ireland and Zimbabwe to stay alive in the competition. Seemed a simple enough situation for Pakistan, until it wasn’t.
The Pakistani batters, especially their middle order, had no answer to Ireland’s pace bowlers in Kingston. After future England international Boyd Rankin set the tone, Ireland bowled out Pakistan for just 132 – with 26 balls still remaining.
The chase, however, was anything but easy. Overhead conditions favoured Pakistan’s seamers, and Mohammad Sami made the most of it. Sami’s combination of swing and pace removed Jeremy Bray and Eoin Morgan early on.
Wicketkeeper Niall O’Brien played a brilliant knock of 72 runs to anchor the wobbly Ireland innings. When he got out as the fifth wicket, Ireland seemed to be in cruise control. They needed only 25 runs to win with five wickets and 96 balls remaining.
But quick dismissals of Andrew White and Kyle McCallan threw the match into uncertainty again and leveled the live betting markets. A win for Pakistan didn’t seem impossible at that point since Ireland only had three wickets in hand and they still needed to score 20 runs.
Kevin O’Brien and skipper Trent Johnston formed a crucial eighth wicket partnership of 20 runs in 40 balls to steer Ireland to the victory and knock Pakistan out of the competition. Irish cricket fans couldn’t have asked for a better St. Patrick’s Day gift from their cricket team.
Bangladesh were no strangers to World Cup upsets ahead of this fixture. They had already shocked Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup and shockingly lost to Canada themselves in the 2003 edition. When they took on India in their 2007 World Cup Group B match at Port of Spain, the Tigers were a Test-playing nation.
But the gulf in star power and experience between the two sides makes this one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history. India had the likes of Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, and Virendar Sehwag, while Bangladesh came to the tournament with an unproven batch.
Dravid chose to bat first on a wicket that looked quite good for batting under sunny conditions. However, Mashrafe bin Mortaza and Bangladesh's left-arm spinners made life difficult for the Indian batting line-up.
Ganguly’s composed fifty gave India something to bowl at, but it was all undone by a fearless teenage trio whose combined experience totalled just 35 matches and whose average age barely scraped 18.
India could only put 191 runs on the board. There was still hope among Indian fans as Bangladeshi batters were notorious for throwing away their wickets. But a brilliant Tamim Iqbal knock of 51 off 53 balls laid the foundation of a successful chase. Saqibul Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim did the rest and helped Bangladesh chase down India’s total with five wickets remaining.
