Cricket World Cup History: Ranking the top five innings played by Indian batsmen in World Cup history
The Indian team is the joint second most successful team in the history of the World Cup. The Men in Blue have won the tournament on two occasions, a record which is bettered only by Australia and equalled by the West Indies. A lot of this success has been due to the presence of some world class batsmen in the Indian line-up.
India has always been blessed with some of the greatest batsmen in the history of the game. World Cup is the biggest stage in cricket and big players rise on big occasions. So it is not a surprise that we have seen some incredible innings from Indian batsmen in the World Cup.
It is not easy to select just five brilliant knocks as the Indian batsmen have scored a lot of brilliant knocks in the greatest cricket tournament. But, these innings have been handpicked on the basis of the impact they had on the match and time they came in.
Here's a look at them:
#5 Sourav Ganguly - 183* vs Sri Lanka
India took on Sri Lanka in the group stage of the 1999 World Cup. India got off to a poor start losing the wicket of Sadagoppan Ramesh early in the innings. But Ramesh's opening partner Sourav Ganguly stiched a brilliant partnership for the second wicket with Rahul Dravid.
The pair put on 318 runs for the second wicket, breaking the record for the highest partnership in ODIs in the process. Sourav Ganguly put on an exhibition of incredible hitting as he scored 183 off just 158 balls. The left-hander hit 17 fours and seven sixes in that innings to help India post a target of 374 for Sri Lanka.
This target was always going to be too much for Sri Lanka, and India registered a comfortable 157 run victory. It turned out to be a poor World Cup for the Indian team as India finished sixth but Indian fans will never forget this innings from 'Dada'.
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