One Fine One-Day Trivia Quiz

Answer: India

India were the host nation for the 13th edition of the competition, which started on 5 October and finished on 19 November. England and Wales were cohosts in 2019, with South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia planning to cohost the 2027 competition.

The tournament was structured in two parts: the group stage, a round-robin competition in which all teams played each of the others, followed by a knockout involving the top four teams at the end of the group stage. The group stage also served to select the teams that would qualify to compete in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy, for which only the host nation (Pakistan) and the top seven of the other teams in the 2023 World Cup will qualify directly.

Matches were played in ten different cities: Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Dharamshala, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai and Pune.

Answer: 10

The number of teams involved, and hence the structure of the competition, has varied over the years. In 2015, for example, there were 14 teams, who were divided into two pools from which the top four progressed to the knockout stage. In 2009 there were 16 teams, and a complex structure that started with four groups, from whom the top eight moved to another round-robin stage (with results against the other team from the same group carrying through) before the knockout stage was reached. The smaller number of teams in 2023 allowed all teams to play each other in the round robin stage while still keeping the total number of matches to the 40-50 range that was considered ideal for the competition.

The qualification process involved a series of stages. First, the host nation is automatically qualified. Then the other twelve teams who are Full Members of the ICC were ranked based on their performance against each other between July 2020 and May 2023 (called the Super League) with the top seven qualifying. The bottom five went into competition with the top three Associate Members and the top two teams of a qualifier playoff involving the rest of the 32 current members of the ICC. The upshot of all this was that the West Indies (who won the first two editions of the competition) missed qualifying for the first time in the history of the World Cup.

The ten teams that participated in the 2023 World Cup were:
Host Nation: India
Super League Top 7: Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa
Qualifiers: Netherlands, Sri Lanka

Answer: No

New Zealand's score against Pakistan was the second-highest of the tournament, but they still lost their match because it was interrupted by rain, and the complex process called the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern Method came into play (to calculate a revised target).

This is a calculation that takes into account the fact that a team batting second when weather has shortened the match during play has not had the chance to face as many balls (and hence score runs) as the team that batted first. It starts with the first team's innings, noting how many runs they scored and how many wickets they lost while facing their 300 allotted balls. (If they were all out before that, they are still considered to have had all 50 overs at their disposal.) Then, for the second team, entering the number of balls they have available, the number they have faced and the number of wickets they have lost at the point of calculation returns a number of runs that will see them awarded the win. It is dynamic - if a team loses wickets, their target number goes up. There is a reference table that is used to determine who has won.

In this case, Pakistan scored 200 runs in 25 overs and 3 balls, while only losing one wicket. This was enough to beat New Zealand's 401/6 in 50 overs - by a margin of 21 runs! Fakhar Zaman, who scored 126 runs from 81 balls and was not out at the end of play, scored the fastest ever World Cup century for a Pakistani, was declared Player of the Match.

The highest winning score in the tournament came from South Africa, who scored 428 runs in their victory over Sri Lanka in the group stage. The highest total score for both teams in a match was 771, when Australia scored 388 runs, setting New Zealand a target of 389 for the win; they came agonizingly close, ending up with 383 runs in their 50 overs. This set a new record for the highest aggregate score for a World Cup match.

Answer: Sri Lanka

In their group match, India scored 357 runs in the first innings. In response, Sri Lanka were bowled out in a few deliveries short of 20 overs, for a score of 55. The winning margin of 302 runs was the second-largest of the tournament, exceeded only by the match between Australia and Netherlands, which Australia won by 309 runs.

In the second-last round of group matches, India and South Africa, then the top two teams in the standings, played a match that was expected to be a beauty. And so it was, for Indian fans. India, batting first, scored 326/5 before South Africa managed to score 83 runs before being all out on the first ball of the 28th over. This was the second-lowest score for the tournament.

Answer: Glenn Maxwell

This was one of the closest results of the tournament, with the two teams' prospects of winning swinging wildly during the match. Afghanistan batted first, and opening batsman Ibrahim Zadran scored 129 runs, becoming the first Afghani to score a century in a World Cup match. The team finished with 291 runs, a reasonable but not amazing score that presented a target for the much more highly-ranked Australians that commentators expected them to reach comfortably. However, the Afghan bowlers, led by Rashid Khan, made life interesting, to say the least.

After David Warner was out for 18 and Josh Inglis was dismissed on the next ball, Glenn Maxwell faced the hat trick ball with the score on 49, and four players already out. Three more players were retired before captain Pat Cummins joined Maxwell at the crease with the score on 91. That is when the fireworks started - partly because Maxwell is a player who naturally goes for big shots, and partly because he started to experience back pain (an ongoing injury) and cramps (from the heat) which at one point had him barely able to stand. Hence, he relied on hitting the ball to the boundary, getting an automatic 4 or 6 runs without having to actually run anywhere, until he had a chance to recover. By the time he hit a six to give Australia a two-run victory with only 19 balls remaining, Cummins had scored 12 runs - his major contribution having been to not get out on the few balls he had to face. As a result of this victory, Australia secured a place in the knockout stage.

Answer: Missed the finals, but qualified for the 2025 Champions Trophy with 3 wins from 9 games

In 2015, they had been eliminated during the group stage of the competition, a performance that they more or less duplicated in 2023. This was surprising, as they had been highly successful in the leadup, finishing second to New Zealand in the Super League table.

It was India who finished on top, with 9 wins in 9 matches.

With the last round of the group stage still to play, England had clearly missed the knockout stage, with 2 wins in their first 8 games. There were four teams still trying to avoid a bottom-two finish - England, Sri Lanka, Bangla Desh and the Netherlands - so the final round became tension-filled for their supporters. In the final round of matches, New Zealand beat Sri Lanka, South Africa beat Afghanistan, Australia beat Bangladesh, England beat Pakistan, and India beat the Netherlands. The two teams, therefore, who did not finish in the top eight and qualify directly for the 2025 Champions Trophy tournament were Sri Lanka and the Netherlands.

Answer: Virat Kohli, from India

These were four of the top five scorers over the 45 matches (9 games for each team) of the group stage. Since that is the time when all players have had the same number of matches available (Assuming they were selected for all of the group matches), some fans consider this a more meaningful point to note who had scored the most runs. Virat Kohli compiled 594 runs, Quinton de Kock 591, Rachin Ravindra 565, Rohit Sharma 503 and Australian David Warner 499.

By the end of the competition, in which Ravindra and De Kock played one more match, and the others two, the final result saw Virat Kohli with 765 as the top scorer.

Answer: Sachin Tendulkar

The first semifinal was played between India (who finished on top of the table after the group stage) and New Zealand (who finished fourth) in Mumbai. India continued their winning streak, when New Zealand were all out for 327 in their 49th over, chasing India's score of 397 in the first innings.

Virat Kohli scored 117 from 113 balls faced. This was his 50th century (across all editions of the competition), surpassing Tendulkar's 49. This innings also saw him compile a total of 711 runs for this particular edition, again replacing Tendulkar's previous record of 673. And he still had the final in which to increase the margin.

Indian bowler Mohammed Shami, playing in his 100th ODI match, was Player of the Match, taking 7 wickets for 57 runs. These were the best bowling figures in any ICC World Cup tournament, and also saw hm become the bowler who took the fewest innings of competition to reach a total of 50 wickets, as it only took him 17 matches. The record had been held by Australian Mitchell Starc, who needed 19 innings to reach the target.

Answer: David Miller (South Africa)

The second semifinal was played in Kolkata, the day after the first semi-final, with second-place South Africa meeting third-place Australia. These two teams have a history of semi-final confrontations, and once again Australia defeated South Africa, who have yet to make it through to the final match, despite almost always making the elimination stage.

Australia made a strong start, with Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazelwood each taking two quick wickets, leaving the South African team reeling on 24 runs for the loss of 4 wickets. They regrouped after the rain delay, and batted with determination to reach a score of 212 - low, but competitive under the conditions. Then Australia got off to a flying start before losing some wickets and settling in to reach the winning total in the second-last over when captain Pat Cummins hit a four, taking Australia from 211 to 215. Travis Head was the Player of the Match, taking two crucial wickets in a few balls to dramatically slow South Africa's resurgence, and scoring 62 runs as one of Australia's opening batsmen.

This semi-final, like the first one, had the statistically unusual event of a player scoring a century for a losing side: Daryl Mitchell in the first one, David Miller in this one. The first semi-final saw the winners have two centurions, Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer.

Answer: False

Before the tournament started, pundits around the world predicted a win for India. Cricket is a sport in which home team advantage is massive, and the home team is generally the favourite. Aside from the obvious psychological impact of a supporting crowd, they control factors such as selecting the grounds on which games will be played - cricket grounds vary dramatically in size and shape, and different grounds suit different styles of batting and bowling. Then comes the preparation of the pitch - again, they can be prepared to make life easy for the batters to get high scores, with the bowlers struggling, or they can have a surface that favours teams whose bowlers depend on speed, or on swinging through the air, or on spinning unpredictably after it bounces. The home team's strengths and weaknesses are obviously taken into account. Additionally, those players compete in their home country more often than do the overseas competitors, so are more familiar with the conditions. In both 2015 and 2019, the home country won the event.

The final match was played in the mammoth Narendra Modi Stadium (132,000 capacity), located in the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Australia, the only team to have won more than two ICC ODI titles, were going for their sixth win, while India were aiming for their third victory. Having won all ten of their matches prior to the final, including defeating Australia in the tournament's opening match, they were heavily favoured to succeed.

After Australia won the toss and elected to bowl, India scored 240 runs, losing their last wicket on the last ball of their innings. This was the first time during the tournament that they lost all ten wickets in their innings. The run chase started badly for Australia, but when Marnus Labuschagne joined Travis Head at 47 for 3, their partnership turned the tide. Head was out for 137 in the 43rd over, with the score at 239 (two short of victory). Glenn Maxwell came in and hit the winning runs on the first ball he faced. The silence in the stadium was palpable, and the spectacular post-match fireworks display (featuring images that included a map of India, an Indian flag and an image of the trophy) was presented to a rapidly-emptying house.

Travis Head was named Player of the Match, recognising both his batting performance and the difficult catch of Rohit Sharma that made a dramatic change to the flow of the Indian innings.