World Cup 2023: India vs Australia, a rivalry that produces jaw-dropping and edge-of-the-seat thrillers, will unfold at the iconic Chepauk Stadium in Chennai on Sunday. A World Cup which is set to make its way into the limelight from the shadow of the Asian Games, will hit to life with the India vs Australia game. A sport-loving nation holds its breath tight with two giants - India and Australia having a crack at each other to start their campaign with
India vs Australia is a storied rivalry of some greatest quality of cricket, especially in the last two decades, where the Indians have given a tough fight to the Aussies in all formats. The 1987 thriller or the 2011 quarterfinal, the two sides have produced some fascinating contests in the past time. Not only in ODIs but the two have played some hard-to-believe Test matches too. The Border-Gavaskar series in 2001 is one of the best Test series and one of the greatest comebacks by an Indian team. Add to this, the 2021 Test series against all odds, when India made another comeback for the ages to seal the second consecutive series down under, what a dream it was!
But the Aussies have had their fair share of glory. Former Aussie captain Steve Waugh once called India the final frontier for any Australian team to breach. He called this in 2001. Three years later, an Australian team conquered it in the BGT 2004-05 series. Sandwiched in between these two was arguably the biggest heartbreak for the Indians - the 2003 World Cup final loss. No Indian wants to remember that.
Overall, the Men in Blue and the Aussies have faced each other 12 times in ODI World Cups and the Aussies hold an 8-4 lead. But most of those wins have not been easy ones. The Men in Blue have made the Aussies sweat hard which included two losses of 1 run in 1987 and the 1992 World Cup. The Indians got some sort of revenge for that 2003 loss in the 2011 World Cup quarterfinal when they scripted their second World Cup title win.
Going by a few more stats or numbers, barring 1987, an Australian team has never won a World Cup when they have lost to India at least once. A storied rivalry will be played at the cricket-loving Chepauk stadium, which loves just the quality of play. It was the same crowd which stood in ovation for a Pakistan team when they defeated India in a Test match in 1999 in a thrilling Test match.
But these stats go into a shell (and should go) when the teams step onto the field to play each other. The stats go yesterday and only the action loads when 22 men step onto the 22-yards for just another match but it is surely not that just.
