CWC History: Five teams with the most number of semi-final appearances

#2 New Zealand (7)

New Zealand came close in the last edition

New Zealand is the only team in the history of World Cup to reach the semi-finals for the most number of times (7) without winning the tournament at least once.

They reached the semi-finals in the first two editions (1975 and 1979). Later, they failed to cross the group stage in the next two editions (1983 and 1987). However, in the next six tournaments, they reached the semi-finals four times (1992, 1999, 2007, and 2011).

In the 2015 edition, they went one step further and finished as runners-up for the first time under the guidance of Brendon McCullum. Despite appearing in seven semi-finals, New Zealand has never entered any tournament as favorites. They will once again enter this year’s competition as a ‘dark horse.’ It will be interesting to see whether New Zealand can break their jinx in this World Cup.