India, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand are hands down the four most dominant teams in ODI right now, apart from maybe England. As England are out of the tournament already, after their unexpected loss against Afghanistan on 26th February. The four aforementioned teams have thus made it to the semifinals of the 2025 Champions Trophy and it is set to be an extremely high intensity knockout.
However, now that these four teams have made it to the semifinals, it is important to note the history of these four teams, especially in the recent past. India, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand are the semifinalists of the 2025 Champions Trophy. The same set of four players were also the semifinalists of the 2023 ODI World Cup and, before that, in the 2015 ODI World Cup. Let us now take a look at the results of these previous tournaments.
2015 ODI World Cup
South Africa and New Zealand took on each other in the first semifinal. The match was reduced to 43 overs due to rain delay. South Africa scored 281 runs in the first inning, and the target was raised to 298 due to DLS. However, New Zealand were able to do that with a ball to go in an extremely thrilling match and New Zealand went through.
In the other semifinal, Australia took on India and scored 328 in the first inning. The Australians were able to restrict team India to a mere total of 233. In the final, Australia went on to defeat New Zealand and won the 2015 ODI World Cup.
2023 ODI World Cup
India took on New Zealand in the first semifinal and dominated the kiwis. The Blues scored 397 runs in the first inning while the New Zealand just scored 327 runs and team India went on to the finals. In the second semifinals, Australia defeated South Africa with moderate difficulty.
In the final, they again went on to defeat Team India to win the World Cup.
Thus, the fear of jinx for Team India is real. Moreover, they will be facing Australia in the semifinals, who have eliminated them in the previous two tournaments mentioned above. The upcoming semifinal match will be interesting to watch.
