3 times India's top order failed in a World Cup match ft. 2023
India's top order failed to fire yesterday (October 8) in the 2023 World Cup match against Australia. Playing their first match of the tournament, India bowled Australia out for 199 runs at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Fans expected the run-chase to be a cakewalk, but the duo of Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc made life difficult for the Indian batters in the powerplay overs. Starc dismissed Ishan Kishan caught out in the first over, and in the next over, Hazlewood trapped Rohit Sharma in front of his stumps and sent Shreyas Iyer back to the pavilion as well.
All of a sudden, Australia's win probablity was more than that of India. Virat Kohli and KL Rahul stepped up and delivered the goods for the team under pressure. They added 165 runs for the fourth wicket to eventually help India win the match by six wickets.
In this listicle, we will look at the three instances when India's top-order failed in a World Cup match.
#1 India left reeling at 2-3 against Australia in 2023 World Cup match
Starting the list with yesterday's match in Chennai, the Indian team lost three wickets in the first two overs of the run-chase. Rohit Sharma started the innings with Ishan Kishan. Mitchell Starc bowled a wide on the first ball, while on the third ball, Rohit took a leg-bye.
New batter Kishan attempted a drive on the fourth ball, but the ball got the outside edge of his bat and traveled straight to Cameron Green in the slip cordon. Virat Kohli played two dot balls to end the over.
Josh Hazlewood next came into the attack. He set up Rohit Sharma on the first two balls and then fired a ball onto his pads to trap him LBW.
Shreyas Iyer came out to bat next. He struggled against Hazlewood's pace and handed a catch to David Warner with a poorly timed shot on the third ball. India were down to 2/3 at the end of two overs.
#2 India down to 5/3 in 2019 World Cup semifinal against New Zealand
India battled against New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup semifinal. The Blackcaps batted first and scored 239/8. In reply, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul came out to open the batting for India. They started cautiously against Trent Boult and Matt Henry.
On the third ball of the second over, Henry dismissed Sharma caught behind. Virat Kohli arrived next. Kohli scored one run off five balls before Trent Boult trapped him LBW on the sixth ball of his innings. In the next over, Rahul edged a ball from Henry straight into the hands of wicketkeeper Tom Latham as India were reduced to 5/3 in 3.1 overs.
#3 Zimbabwe reduce India to 17/5 in 1983 World Cup match
Zimbabwe battled India in a group-stage match of the 1983 World Cup. The Indian team elected to bat first at Tunbridge Wells. While Zimbabwe did not have the strongest bowling attack in the mega event, the Indian batters could not tackle the pace of Kevin Curran and Peter Rawson.
Sunil Gavaskar, Kris Srikkanth, Mohinder Amarnath, Sandeep Patil, and Yashpal Sharma lost their wickets before touching double digits as India were down to 17/5. Curran dismissed Patil and Srikkanth, while Amarnath, Gavaskar and Sharma lost their wickets to Rawson.