The most unfavoured opponent

The first weekend of the 2015 World Cup is a blockbuster: there's New Zealand's opener against Sri Lanka, and two of the most high-profile games back-to-back in Australia, with the hosts taking on England in Melbourne on Saturday, and India playing Pakistan on Sunday. If both games live up to expectations, the World Cup should be off to a cracking start.

Among these two rivalries, the India-Pakistan one is peculiar, in terms of their overall record versus their World Cup stats: in all ODIs, Pakistan have a huge lead - 72-50; in World Cups, they've lost five out of five. (It's similar to the Boris Becker-Stefan Edberg rivalry in tennis, where Becker held a 25-10 winning record overall, but lost three out of four Grand Slam matches.)

Pakistan and India first played a World Cup game in 1992, in Sydney. Going into that game, Pakistan held an overwhelming 24-11 advantage, and an even more emphatic 18-3 in the last 21 completed matches. They were 10-1 up when batting first, and 8-2 when fielding first.

All of those 21 games were in Asia, though, with 11 of them being Sharjah. The 1992 World Cup game was in Sydney, and in different conditions, India's bowling, often their weak link, came to the fore, as they defended a total of 216 with plenty to spare, winning by 43 runs. Since then, India have been dominant in every World Cup game against Pakistan, winning the quarter-final in Bangalore in 1996, the Super Sixes matches at Old Trafford in 1999, a group game in Centurion in 2003, and the semi-final in 2011.

In each of those five games, the team winning the toss batted, indicating - apart from the conditions at the ground - the mentality of captains in those pressure games. India won the toss in four of those games, posted less than 230 in two of them, but were still able to win, thanks to their bowlers and Pakistan's feeble batting. The one instance when Pakistan did win the toss and bat, they posted 273 in Centurion, the second-highest total by the team batting first in these five games, but India chased it down with six wickets and 26 balls to spare.

It's quite revealing that only one century has been scored in the five World Cup games between these two teams, and that came in a losing cause, when Saeed Anwar made 101 in that Centurion game. India's highest against Pakistan in World Cups came in that match too, with Sachin Tendulkar scoring 98. In all India-Pakistan ODIs since they first met at a World Cup, there have been 49 hundreds scored in 89 games, an average of less than two games per century, with Pakistan getting 30 to India's 19. In World Cups, five games have produced only one hundred. (Click here for the highest scores in World Cup games between these two teams.)

The overall team numbers indicate that Pakistan's batting average has dropped significantly when they've played India in the World Cup, compared to other games. In all ODIs against India, Pakistan have averaged more than 32 runs per wicket, but in World Cup games it has dropped to 24, which is Pakistan's worst batting average in World Cups versus teams against whom they've played more than one match. India, on the other hand, have lifted their average from 29.79 to 37.23, which is their best against any of the top eight teams.

One huge advantage for Pakistan this time around is the absence of Sachin Tendulkar from India's batting line-up. Tendulkar is the only batsman to have played all five of these matches, and he has contributed each time, with scores of 54*, 31, 45, 98 and 85. Three of those efforts won him the Man-of-the-Match awards.

Pakistan's best in these matches was Anwar, but the biggest disappointment was Inzamam-ul-Haq: in four innings he managed only 61 runs at a strike rate of 50. Shahid Afridi hasn't fired either, scoring only 34 in three innings.

As a bowling unit, Pakistan's underperformance against India in World Cup games has been even more disappointing. Wasim Akram has taken two wickets in three games at an average of 60, Shoaib Akhtar has two from two at an average of 63 and an economy rate of 6.30, while Waqar Younis has bowled 18.4 overs at an economy rate of 7.39.

On the other hand, the Indian bowlers have exceeded expectations. Venkatesh Prasad has eight wickets from two games at an average of 9.00, while Javagal Srinath has seven from four at an average of 25.14. Pakistan's leading wicket-takers are Mushtaq Ahmed and Wahab Riaz, with five each. Wahab took his five in one match, in Mohali in 2011, but it still wasn't enough to win the match.

The trend in Australia-England matches have been more predictable, with Australia dominant overall and in the World Cup. Australia have a 4-2 advantage in World Cup matches, but more importantly, one of those wins was also in a World Cup final, in 1987. That was England's second unsuccessful attempt in a World Cup final, and since then they've had another one, in 1992.

The team they lost to in that final, though, will want to break a jinx of their own come Sunday.