From Australia and South Africa choking at home to India’s 2007 shock and England’s woes, half a dozen CWC nightmares
The year 2007 changed cricket, a transformation that pivoted on India’s performance in its two international tournaments – their early exit from the 50-over shindig and their triumph in the inaugural Twenty20 one. In a Caribbean World Cup that opened with four groups of four from which only two teams progressed, the competition’s defining day was not its concluding one – when Australia emphatically beat Sri Lanka to secure a third successive crown – but its fifth, on which Pakistan and India crashed to cataclysmic defeats, against Ireland and Bangladesh respectively. Pakistan’s tournament was then engulfed by tragedy with the death of their coach, Bob Woolmer, while India’s was a strictly cricketing calamity – but one that reverberated throughout the game.
Related: The Spin | A brief history of the Cricket World Cup
Related: The Spin | A brief history of the Cricket World Cup
Related: To win the World Cup and Ashes at home would put us in dreamland | Moeen Ali
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