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The International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket World Cup 2023 was held in India with ten teams participating in the tournament. This tournament was organized by the ICC and was hosted by India. This tournament was played in 50 overs or the OneDay cricket format. This tournament was hosted by India in across 10 venues. India had hosted the world cup in some stupendous venues like : Wankhede Stadium, Narendra Modi Stadium, HPCA Stadium, Chinnaswamy Stadium etc. This was the 13th edition of the tournament and the fourth edition hosted by India. However, it was the first time that India was hosting the tournament alone.

This tournament had altogether 10 teams participating. Apart from the hosts (India) the other nine teams had to participate through the league two, qualifiers and the world cup super league. Out of which, 7 teams: Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, England and Afghanistan were qualified from the world cup super league whereas teams like Nepal, Zimbabwe, West Indies, Sri Lanka, Netherlands had to be the finalists of the world cup qualifiers held in Zimbabwe out of which, it was Netherlands and Sri Lanka who were going to play the ODI world cup in India.

Since the teams were qualified the tournament was all set to start. Some of the favorites to win the tournament were India who as usual were in outstanding form and most balanced and strongest side ever and to make it even more better, they had won the Asia cup just before the world cup dominating the finals, South Africa, who were in pretty good form before the world cup beating Australia, England who were the defending champions and New Zealand who were also in pretty good form. It is so surprising that Australia who would later go on to win the world cup were not even considered as favorites.

The world cup started with a match between two finalists, England and New Zealand. The tournament was divided into two phases, the round robin phase where every team had to play against each other. The top four teams of the round robin stage would go on to play the Semi Finals and the winning side would play the finals. The semi finalists were: India who dominated the round robin stage without losing even a single match, Australia, who made a comeback to remember. The Australians were in the bottom of the table in the beginning stages but later on they would qualify for the semi finals. South Africa, who were looking good in the first half of the tournament but could not dominate the group stage and New Zealand who were also in pretty good form in the first half of the round robin but later went on losing matches. The round robin had some beautiful memories such as a magnificent innings by Glenn Maxwell to make Australia chase down the total of 292 when they were 92-7, South Africa losing against Netherlands and Afghanistan almost making it into the semi finals. Virat Kohli, also made a remarkable record in the group stage during the match against South Africa, he had equalized the record of Sachin Tendulkar of most number of centuries in 50 over cricket.

The semi finals were nothing special. The results were quite expected. The first semi finals played between India and New Zealand was dominated by India by the stupendous performance of Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Mohommad Shami. Now, India were in the finals and were the favorites to win it as well. In this match, Virat Kohli broke the record of Sachin Tendulkar which he had equalized in the group stage and became the batsman with most centuries in ODI. The second Semi Finals which was played between Australia and South Africa, was a bowler’s match in a bowling paradise. Where Australia beat South Africa and made it into the finals.

The stage was set for the finals. Although Australia went on to play the finals after being in the bottom of the table after a few early matches, they weren’t considered favorites to win. Rohit Sharma led Indian side were just unstoppable in the tournament which was being played in their home ground. Indians were so dominant in the world cup that they had won 10 consecutive matches before the finals. Virat Kohli was the highest run scorer in the tournament and Mohammad Shami was the highest wicket taker. This clearly shows that they were the one who had the strongest side on paper but this match proves the statement that cricket is not played on paper but on field. The match started with the firing start from Rohit Sharma who was leading the team from the front. He was batting so aggressively that within the first 10 overs it seemed like the Indians were the world champion but a tactical genius from the Australian captain brought the part-time bowler who gets the wicket of  Rohit Sharma. This wicket was the first nail in the coffin as the Australian bowling side got quick wickets and made India go through a batting collapse. The score made by the Indian side was not just enough to confidently play the rest of the match. As soon as the Australian batting started, the Indian bowler took some early wickets but that wasn't enough to get Travis Head under pressure. He played a match winning knock and led the team to victory. Australia won a well deserved world cup with a magnificent comeback and also they defeated the most dominant team in the tournament in the biggest stage. They had silenced the entire Indian cricket fan base and won the world cup despite the efforts of Indians throughout the tournament.