India was placed in the group also including South Africa, Zimbabwe, England, Sri Lanka and Kenya. India was off to a bad start losing to South Africa by 4 wickets. Sourav Ganguly top scored for India with 97 and 54 from Rahul Dravid contributed 54 but South Africa chased down India`s target thanks to late flourish by Lance Klusener. Things got worse when Sachin Tendulkar had to return back home prior to the next game against Zimbabwe owing to his father`s loss. In his absence, India crumbled to a 3-run loss.
However, Sachin returned for the match against Kenya and putting his personal loss behind him scored a brilliant 140. Dravid also scored a century as India amassed 329. Debashish Mohanty then claimed 4 wickets as India won without much trouble. Bolstered by the win they whipped defending champs by 157 runs. Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid scored 183 and 145 respectively as India registered their highest ever score of 6/373. Robin Singh then picked up 5 wickets for India as they won easily. A win against England saw then entering the final six (called the Super Six phase).
India however, was not in a great position as such as they had lost to both the other teams that progressed from their group. As per the rules of the tournament, the points were carried forward. This meant they had to win all their games to be sure that they would make it to the semi- finals. India did beat Pakistan once again but their performance in the league stage came back to haunt them as they were knocked out even before they took on New Zealand in their final match. Not surprisingly, they lost the game.
For once, Rahul Dravid, who scored 461 runs, overshadowed Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin and Sourav also had a good World Cup but the rest did not put up all that good a showing. The entire Indian team players, at the world cup included: Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, S Ramesh, Rahul Dravid, Mohammed Azharuddin (Captain), Ajay Jadeja, AR Khurasiya, Nayan Mongia, Javagal Srinath, BKV Prasad, Ajit Agarkar, Robin Singh, N Chopra, Anil Kumble and DS Mohanty.
