With 10 successive World Cup wins under their belt, Mahendra Singh Dhoni's India on Saturday bettered Clive Lloyd's fearsome outfit of the late 1970' and 80', in terms of consecutive victories in the quadrennial extravaganza.
Lloyd's team, which triumphed in the inaugural 1975 and 1979 World Cups, had nine wins in its kitty. Dhoni's men surpassed them with their six-wicket result against Zimbabwe at Auckland on Saturday.
Now, the Men in Blue stand only second to Ricky Ponting's Australian side that registered a staggering 24 consecutive victories in the showpiece event. The eight-wicket win against Ireland last week was India's ninth in the quadrennial extravaganza, the run starting with the victory over the West Indies in the previous edition.
World Cup 2015, India v/s Zimbabwe: 'Happy' to have been stretched by Zimbabwe, says MS Dhoni
Dhoni is also credited with most wins (13) by an Indian captain in the World Cups. He has overtaken 1983 World Cup-winning skipper Kapil Dev (11), Mohammed Azharuddin (10) and Sourav Ganguly (9).
They comfortably claimed the top spot in pool B as Dhoni also overtook former captain Ganguly, who had led the Men in Blue to eight consecutive World Cup wins in the mega-event. It was against the West Indies on March 6 that Dhoni overtook Ganguly for most overseas ODI wins as a captain.
Dhoni's India surpassed Ganguly's record of 58 wins in 110 matches, at the WACA in the ongoing tournament. "As far as the records and milestones are concerned, the most important thing is winning the game for your country. It doesn't really matter what the milestone is," Dhoni said.
