On a roll: Three longest winning streaks of teams in the 50-over World Cup

For any team in the cricket arena, winning the ODI World Cup is the ultimate goal. Some of the teams have dominated the game for years and continued the legacy in ODI tournaments as well. In this article, we will be discussing the three best winning streaks of teams in 50-over World Cups.

3. West Indies – 9 Wins

The West Indies team was at its supreme in the 1970s when all teams were scared to face them. They won 5 consecutive games in World Cup 1975 to win the inaugural tournament. Later on, again in the 1979 edition, they were the champions winning 4 consecutive games during the tournament. Their 9-match winning streak was broken in 1983 when they were defeated by India in their first match. India then again defeated West Indies in the final by 41 runs to become champions for the first time.

2. India – 11 Wins

India were the champions of the 2011 World Cup where they won their last 4 matches on the trot. This included wins in the quarter-final, semi-final and final against Australia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka respectively. They had earlier won their last league game against West Indies. Yuvraj Singh played a key role in helping them clinch the title after 28 years with his all-round performance.

In the next edition in 2015, they were undefeated in their group winning 6 consecutive matches. India cruised over Bangladesh in the quarter-final to take their winning streak to 11 games in the ODI World Cups. The Indian fans had a heartbreak in the semi-final as the team got knocked out of the tournament after losing to Australia in the Semi-Final.

1. Australia – 25 Wins

Australia remains the strongest team to dominate ODI World Cups for the longest period of time. In the 1999 World Cup, they won 6 matches on the trot to reach the semi-final which got tied with New Zealand. Australia advanced to the finals because of their superior net run rate. In the final game, they defeated Pakistan by 8 wickets.

In the 2003 and 2007 World Cups, Australia were undefeated during the whole tournament. They won 11 consecutive games in each of these editions taking their winning streak tally to 23. Australia defeated India and Sri Lanka in the finals of these tournaments. They later won the first 2 matches of the 2011 edition but got defeated by Pakistan and India in the same edition.