With an Indian team that looks every bit a winner, the upcoming ICC World Cup is sure to prompt some memorable performances. A side traditionally known for its batting strength, India’s current unit not only boasts one of the game’s biggest legends, Sachin Tendulkar, but also giants like Sehwag and Dhoni and youngsters like Kohli, Yuvraj and Pathan. A quick look back to the previous editions of the World Cup reveals that the current batting line-up has some grand feats to live up to.

India v West Indies, Manchester, June 9 and 10, 1983

Yashpal Sharma: 89 (120b, 9X4, 0X6)

It was India’s first game at the 1983 World Cup. Their opponents – two time World Champions – the West Indies. India had won just one game in the prior two editions of the competition. West Indies had not lost any. India, batting first, were 76/3 when Yashpal Sharma made his way out to the middle. Holding his own against a bowling attack that comprised the likes of Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Andy Roberts and Malcolm Marshall, Sharma scored 89 runs that propelled India to 262/8 in 60 overs. It was a remarkable innings that gained even greater significance in the context that the next highest score by a batsman on either side was 37. Sharma paved the way for the Indians to inflict a 34-run defeat on the mighty West Indies.

India v Zimbabwe, Tunbridge Wells, June 18, 1983

Kapil Dev: 175* (138b, 16X4, 6X6)

India, having beaten the West Indies and Zimbabwe in earlier league outings, were on a roll. A semi-final berth beckoned. Yet, when India were reduced to 9/4 against Zimbabwe in their second clash of the tournament, the disappointment of previous World Cup campaigns came flooding back for fans. Enter Kapil Dev. The India captain single-handedly turned the game on its head by bludgeoning an unbeaten 175 that eventually set up a 31-run win for India. Of his 175 runs, 100 came through boundaries alone. His 16 fours were one less than the number hit by the entire Zimbabwe batting line-up, while his six sixes were the only hits that cleared the boundary line in the entire game. A real dampener, then, that there is no television footage of Kapil’s legendary innings due to the broadcasters’ (BBC) strike on the day. Given the team’s triumph at that World Cup and the burgeoning of interest in the game in the country thereafter, experts have hailed Kapil’s knock as the one that most impacted India’s cricketing fortunes.

India v New Zealand, Nagpur, October 31, 1987

Sunil Gavaskar: 103* (88b, 10X4, 3X6)

Gavaskar had never scored a one-day century up to this point. And his peerless Test stature aside, the only association one had of him in the World Cup was the painstaking 36 runs he scored, while remaining not out, in 60 overs against England in the 1975 edition. New Zealand, though, ran into a rampaging Gavaskar on that day in Nagpur. Batting at a strike-rate that would have done Virender Sehwag proud (117.04), Gavaskar destroyed the Kiwi bowling attack. The opener blitzed his way to his first (and only) century in one-day cricket, while setting up a nine-wicket win for India (chasing 222) in just 32.1 overs.

India v Australia, Brisbane, March 1, 1992

Mohammad Azharuddin: 93 (102b, 10X4, 0X6)

Azharuddin, the then India captain, was having a torrid time in Australia. India had been at the receiving end of a 0-4 drubbing from Australia in the preceding five Test series, where Azhar himself, barring a century at Adelaide, had endured a mournful run of form. Then, at the World Cup, India had failed to register a victory leading up to the outing against Australia. But chasing a target of 235 against Australia, Azhar put all that behind him and played a chanceless innings at the Brisbane cricket ground. His 93 runs, which came at a strike-rate of 91.17, exemplified his ability to time the ball and find the open gaps like no other batsman of his time. When Allan Border, the Australia captain, brought the field in, Azhar just lofted the ball over the hapless fielders. And when Border kept the fielders at the boundary, he simply bisected them. However, with India still needing 42 runs to win off 30 deliveries, Azhar was run-out and India fell agonisingly short of the target by two runs.

India v Pakistan, Bengaluru, March 9, 1996

Ajay Jadeja 45 (25b, 4X4, 2X6)

Although Navjot Sidhu (93 off 115) was the top scorer in this game and even walked away with Man-of-the-Match honours, it was Ajay Jadeja’s innings that caught the imagination. Jadeja walked in to bat at the fall of Mohammad Azharuddin’s wicket with the score at 200/4. With eight overs left to bat, India were in desperate need of an innings that would lift an average total to a winning one. Jadeja, in his 25-ball stay at the crease, did just that. He played like a man possessed and was particularly severe on Waqar Younis, hitting the Pakistani pacer for as many as 18 and 22 runs in two successive overs. Two shots that stood out in particular were a flick off Younis for six over midwicket in the 48th over and a flat-batted six off the same bowler over long-off in the 50th over. Younis, otherwise an exceptional bowler at the death, was left stunned. Jadeja’s cameo proved to be the difference in the final analysis. India, having scored 287, managed a 39-run win over their arch rivals to march into the semi-finals.

Sachin Tendulkar, World Cup, 1996

7 matches, 523 runs, highest 137, avg. 87.16, strike-rate 85.87

Sachin Tendulkar was in blazing form at the 1996 World Cup played in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. This was the first time Tendulkar opened the innings for India in a World Cup campaign and the results, individually, were exceptional. He aggregated an incredible 523 runs at an average of 87.16, the highest by any batsman up to that World Cup. The tragedy, though, was that his best innings in the tournament - 90 against Australia (Mumbai), 137 and 65 against Sri Lanka (Delhi and Kolkata) – came with India finishing on the losing side.

India v Sri Lanka, Taunton, May 26, 1999

Sourav Ganguly 183 (158b, 17X4, 7X6), Rahul Dravid 145, (129b, 17X4, 1X6)

Taunton, located in the heart of Somerset county, is an idyllic venue for a game of cricket. But Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid brought the entire ground, if not the entire town of Taunton, to a state of frenzy in this particular World Cup outing against Sri Lanka. Dravid, who had walked in to partner Ganguly with India’s score at 6/1, immediately set the tone by crashing his way to a half-century off just 43 balls. Ganguly, feeding off Dravid’s form, joined in the assault and together both batsmen simply decimated the Sri Lankan bowling attack. Their 318-run partnership, the highest overall partnership score in World Cup tournament history, came off just 44.5 overs (run-rate of 7.09). Even the great Muttiah Muralitharan went for 6.00 runs-per-over on this day, while Chaminda Vaas went for 8.40. Dravid got out for 145 and Ganguly for 183, but at the end of 50 overs, India were able to post an incredible 373 runs. The Sri Lankans fell short of that target by a mammoth 157 runs.

India v South Africa, Centurion, March 1, 2003

Sachin Tendulkar 98 (75b, 12X4, 1X6)

Pakistan, batting first, had posted a competitive total of 273/7 off their 50 overs. With bowlers like Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, Shoaib Akhtar, Abdul Razzaq and Shahid Afridi set to help Pakistan to defend that score, it would take a special innings from an Indian batsman to help the side get past the finishing line. The perfect preamble to a Sachin Tendulkar masterpiece. In just the third delivery of the Indian innings, the Little Matser punched Wasim Akram off the back foot through the covers for four. Next: Shoaib Akhtar was carved for a six over the third-man boundary, flicked to square-leg for four and gently pushed straight down the ground to long-on for another four, making it three boundaries off three consecutive deliveries. There was no let up in his aggression as he reached his 50 off just 37 balls. Even some really severe back spasms, which impeded his running between the wickets and which left him grimacing every time he played a shot, couldn’t slow Sachin down. Waqar Younis and Abdul Razzaq were regularly clipped on the on-side while Afridi brought out some clever, innovative strokes from his bat. Sachin fell to Akhtar two short of his century, but with India needing only 97 runs off 22 overs at the fall of his wicket, the target was well within reach. Robin Jackman, commentating in that game, summed up the viewers’ delight saying, “Thank you Sachin Tendulkar for the entertainment.” India won by six wickets and with 26 deliveries to spare.

Tendulkar sparkled for India right through the 2003 World Cup. The Indian batting wizard notched up 673 runs in 11 matches, while averaging 61.18 runs-per-innings at a strike-rate of 89.25. Some of his best innings were: 152 against Namibia at Pietermaritzburg, 50 against England at Durban and 97 against Sri Lanka at Johannesburg. Tendulkar’s aggregate of 673 runs surpassed his own record of the most runs scored by a batsman in a single edition of the World Cup. He achieved this feat by amassing 523 runs at the 1996 World Cup.

Akshay Manwani is part of the editorial team at bcci.tv