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Dubai: India were once the world champions in One-day cricket and has time and again proved to be a formidable One-day team, but it has taken them nearly 34 years to record more victories than defeats in One-day matches.
Following India's win over Bangladesh during the Asia Cup, for the first time, they have overtaken the total number of defeats.
India have so far played 688 One-dayers since their One-day debut in 1974. They have won 328 matches and lost 327 with three ending in a tie while 30 matches failed to produce any result.
Tomorrow, India will play their 689th One-day match against their arch rivals Pakistan in Karachi. Will they swell their victory tally or end up with equal number of victories and defeats?
Year-long wait
After their debut, India had to wait one year to record their first victory. They beat East Africa by ten wickets at Leeds in the Prudential World Cup. India's big win over a Test playing One-day team was when they defeated Pakistan in October 1987 in Quetta in Pakistan. A Pakistan team led by Mushtaq Mohammad lost by four runs to India. Pakistan beat the next two matches and won the series.
However, to win a One-day series, India had to wait six years.
In November 1981, India, captained by Gavaskar beat England, led by Keith Fletcher, 2-1 after losing the first One-dayer in Ahmedabad and winning in Jullundur and Cuttack.
The England team had star players like Graham Gooch, David Gower, Ian Botham and Mike Gatting. This was the start of India's 1983 winning combination with Sandeep Patil, Yashpal Sharma, Madanlal, Dilip Vengsarkar and Kapil Dev performing brilliantly.
Glorious history
After the historic 1983 win, India came to Sharjah and won the Rothman's Asia Cup in April 1984, then won the Benson and Hedges World Championship in March 1985 and the Rothmans' four nation cup involving Australia, England, India and Pakistan in Sharjah in the same year. Yet India never had more victories than defeats in One-dayers.
In 2007 India played in 39 One-dayers won 20 lost 15 while four resulted in no result.In 2008, India have already played in 16 matches and won 10 lost four while two matches did not produce results.
Among other teams, Australia lead in the number of victories with 419 out of the 682 played and lost only 233.
Pakistan are second with 369 victories out of the 685 matches, losing only 294 matches.
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