The most run-filled World Cup ever ft. just one last-over finish

After India dominated on all fronts in their run to the final with 10 straight wins, it was Australia who eventually halted their run, registering a clinical six-wicket win in Ahmedabad on Sunday, November 19, to bag their record sixth title, with Travis Head headlining the record books.

Here are all the major records from the run-filled Cricket World Cup 2023:

1 - This was the first time in World Cup history that every team won at least two matches in a single edition. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Netherlands finished with exactly four points, the inferior net run-rate depriving the latter two of the Champions Trophy 2025 qualification.

24,639 runs were aggregated in the competition including extras, 23,427 of them by batters, the most in any World Cup edition, bettering 23,531 (22,293 by batters) from the 2015 edition in Australia and New Zealand.

257 - The average innings score at the 2023 World Cup, the highest, bettering 252 in 2019. The average first innings score was 289, 17 better than 272 in 2015, while it stood at 224 batting second, only behind 237 in 2019.

65 - The difference in average first innings score and the second innings score was a whopping 65, the joint highest alongside the 1975 edition (238 vs 173 across 15 matches). An interesting contradiction to this is that 25 of the 48 matches were won by the sides batting second, a joint record in World Cups, alongside the 2007 edition in the West Indies. The major contributing factor to the former is the average winning margin of 130 runs for the teams winning by batting first in the 2023 World Cup.

Lack of close games

1 - There was only one last-ball finish in the tournament, between Australia and New Zealand in Dharamsala, which saw 771 runs aggregated across 100 overs - a World Cup record. The minimum win margin for sides batting first in 22 other matches was 33 runs, 13 of them won by 100 runs or more.

Of the 25 matches won by sides chasing, four were won with three wickets to spare or fewer, none of them going into the last over. South Africa's victory over Pakistan in Chennai was the seventh one-wicket win in World Cup history.

For contrast, six of the 28 matches won by sides batting first in the 2019 edition had a margin of 18 runs or fewer. Three successful chases out of 15 were completed in the final over to go with New Zealand's two-wicket win over Bangladesh at The Oval (17 balls remaining) and the epic tied finish in the final at Lord's.

130 runs was the average winning margin for the teams winning by batting first in the 2023 World Cup, while the successful run-chases were completed with 58 balls (9.4 overs) to spare on an average.

The toss factor

19 matches out of 48 were won by sides winning the toss at World Cup 2023 (39.58%). Nine of those wins came in the last 12 matches of the competition, including the first semi-final in Mumbai and the final in Ahmedabad.

0.655 - The win-loss ratio for teams winning the toss at World Cup 2023 is the second lowest across the 13 editions of the World Cup, only better than 0.555 across 14 completed matches in 1979.

Toss vs results at CWC 2023

Stats after winning the toss in World Cups

40 individual hundreds were scored at the 2023 World Cup, two more than 38 in 2015. Nine of them were scored for South Africa, the highest by any team in a single World Cup followed by 8 by Australia in 2023, which is as many by Sri Lanka in 2015. Quinton de Kock registered four centuries, the joint second most in a single World Cup alongside Kumar Sangakkara's four in 2015, only one behind Rohit Sharma's five in 2019.

Interestingly 15 of the 40 hundreds were scored from No.4 or below, the most in a single World Cup. 25 by top three in an edition is the joint record alongside 2015 and 2019.

9 of the top 15 fastest hundreds in World Cup history (achieved in 67 balls or fewer), came in 2023. Glenn Maxwell completed his hundred in just 40 balls against the Netherlands in Delhi, making it the fastest ever World Cup ton, bettering Aiden Markram's record from earlier in the competition.

159 50-plus scores were registered during the competition, the highest in a World Cup followed by 149 in 2015 and 145 in 2019.

37.34 was the batting average runs for the top seven batters in the tournament, the highest in a World Cup, marginally better than 36.7 in 2019. The average run-rate of 5.82 was also the highest for any edition, bettering 5.65 in 2015.

644 - The number of sixes hit across 48 matches at the World Cup 2023 (13.4 sixes per match), well clear of 463 across 47 completed games in 2015 (roughly 10 sixes per match). The only other World Cup editions with 275-plus sixes were 2007 (373) and 2019 (357).

2239 fours in 2023 is also 69 better than the previous record of 2170 in 2015.

South Africa batters collectively hit 99 sixes in the competition, followed by 97, 92 and 82 by Australia, India and New Zealand respectively. The previous highest sixes count for a team in a single World Cup was 76 by England in 2019.

31 - Leading the six-hitting charts was Rohit Sharma, his tally of 31 maximums being the highest by a batter in a World Cup edition, going past Chris Gayle's 26 in 2015. The India skipper went past Gayle's tally of 49 maximums across World Cups and 553 in international cricket during the campaign, taking the two counts to 54 and 582 respectively by the end of the competition.

428/5 scored by South Africa against Sri Lanka in Delhi was the highest ever World Cup total, bettering 417/6 by Australia against Afghanistan in Perth in 2015. Overall there have been seven 400-plus innings scores in World Cups, three each coming in 2015 and 2023, after India's 413/5 against Bermuda at Port of Spain in 2007.

13 350-plus innings scores were registered at World Cup 2023, the most in an edition, followed by seven in 2015 and six in 2007.

771 runs scored in Match 27 between Australia and New Zealand in Dharamsala in the highest aggregate for a World Cup match. Of the top five highest match aggregates in World Cup history, four came in 2023.

Highest match aggregates in a World Cup match

765 runs aggregated by Virat Kohli is the most by a batter in a single World Cup edition, bettering Sachin Tendulkar's record from 2003. The 35-year-old also registered a landmark 50th ODI hundred in the semi-final against New Zealand in Mumbai.

Kohli got nine 50-plus scores from 11 innings, the most in a single World Cup, five of them on the bounce, replicating his own feat from the 2019 edition. The only other batter to have registered five consecutive 50-plus scores in World Cups is Steve Smith in 2015. Kohli has managed five consecutive 50-plus scores four times in his career, no other batter has done it more than twice.

7 batters registered 500-plus runs at the 2023 World Cup, the joint most in a single edition alongside 2019. Daryl Mitchell (552) and Shreyas Iyer (530) are the only two batters to have done that from No.4 or below in the competition's history, while Rachin Ravindra's 578 is the most by a batter in a World Cup before turning 24. Rohit Sharma (597) and David Warner (535) crossed the 500-run mark for the second time after 2019. Only Sachin Tendulkar had aggregated 500-plus runs in two World Cup editions previously: 523 in 1996 and 673 in 2003.

Spin to win - Left proves right!

1850.2 overs of spin were bowled in World Cup 2023 is the second most for any edition after 1983.3 in 2011. Afghanistan alone sent down 268.5 overs of spin, the most by a team in a single World Cup. Their spinners bowled 40 overs combined in their last game against South Africa, another World Cup record.

Though the overall average and strike-rate of 40.95 and 46.4 respectively for spinners in 2023 don't quite make an impressive reading, it did have a telling effect on how the 10 teams fared eventually.

Spin stats in World Cup 2023

The difference in averages for spinners in wins against defeats (from table above) was 43.87. The corresponding difference for pace was 20.88, less than half, highlighting the pivotal role played by the spinners.

As for the champions Australia, Adam Zampa, their lead spinner, returned 1/123 from 18 overs across the defeats against India and South Africa in Chennai and Lucknow respectively, before redeeming himself with 22 wickets at 17.81 thereafter. Zampa's 23 wickets is the joint most for any spinner in a World Cup edition, alongside Muttiah Muralitharan in 2007. Glenn Maxwell maintained an economy rate of 4.81 bagging six wickets, including those of Quinton de Kock and Rohit Sharma (in the final).

Left arm spinners making a mark

100wickets bagged by left arm spinners (orthodox and wrist-spin combined) is the most in a single World Cup edition, surpassing 95 each in 2007 and 2011. 76 of those were shared among the ones from India, New Zealand and South Africa (three of the four semifinalists). It is noteworthy that the 100 wickets to left-arm spin came at a strike-rate of 43.3 (only bettered at 40.2 in 2011 and 42.1 in 2007) in what happened to be the most run-filled edition.

No other team benefited as significantly from this variety as India, who had a rare duo, that of a left-arm orthodox and left-arm wrist spin. How rare? Till date, only six LA wrist-spinners have bowled in World Cups: Paul Adams, Michael Bevan, Brad Hogg, Kuldeep Yadav, Noor Ahmad, Tabraiz Shamsi. The only pairs of this variety (LA orthodox and LA wrist spin) bowling together in a WC match are those of Lehmann and Clarke (both part-timers) with Hogg in 2003 and 2007 respectively, Maharaj and Shamsi (4 matches in 2023) and Kuldeep and Jadeja (12 matches - once in 2019 and 11 times in 2023).

Notably, the only instance of India spinners going wicketless in the competition was in the final. In 10 matches until then, they collectively bagged 31 wickets at 23.32 while maintaining an impressive economy rate of 4.28.

India's near perfect World Cup

10 matches won by India is the second most by a team in a World Cup edition, after Australia's 11 wins each in their unbeaten, victorious 2003 and 2007 campaigns. India's 10 consecutive wins also happens to be the third longest winning streak in World Cups, after Australia's 25 from 1999 to 2011 and India's 11 across the 2011 and 2015 editions. The 10 wins is also the most for a team in an edition without winning the trophy, bettering India's nine from their runners-up finish in 2003.

3 - There have been three instances of teams having an unbeaten run to the final and finishing runners up in a World Cup edition: England in 1979 (four wins), New Zealand in 2015 (eight wins) and India in 2023 (10 wins).

99 wickets taken by Indian bowlers is the most by a team in a single World Cup edition, followed by 97 and 96 by Australia in 2007 and 2003 respectively. India bowlers finished with a combined bowling average of 22.42 and a strike-rate of 28.1, their best ever in a single edition.

3038 runs aggregated by India batters is the second most by a team in a World Cup edition, after England's 3059 in 2019. Australia's 2945 in 2023 is the third most on this list.