On this day in 2003, Team India played one of its more insignificant games of the World Cup, and yet it happened to be the semi-final.

The game was insignificant in the sense we knew the outcome. Because it was the first and only time a minnow entered the semi-final of the World Cup.

Make no mistake, Steve Tikolo's Kenya was a good team. They finished second in the group stage, and just like in 1996, they also registered a big upset in this edition by beating Sri Lanka.

One of the reasons for their success was New Zealand forfeited their group match against Kenya (held in Kenya) due to safety concerns. But Kenyans made good use of the fortune favoured and reached the semi-final by beating Zimbabwe in the super-six.

This time, fortune was not of any use in the semi-final. They were about to play one of the best teams in the tournament.

But even though India won the game in Super-Six, Kenya did show us what they were capable of. They reduced us 24-3 at one point in the game. More importantly, Kenya was the first team in the tournament which got Sachin Tendulkar out on a single-digit score.

However, this was not to happen in the semi-final. Sachin continued his supreme form in the World Cup. First, he gave us a good start with Sehwag. Later, he formed another formidable partnership with the skipper Ganguly before getting out on 83 to put the game out of Kenya's reach.

Even though Sachin missed out on his second hundred of the tournament, Sourav Ganguly got his third.

This was the first game of the World Cup I enjoyed freely with my friends without any care in the world because my 10th standard board exams were over just a day before. Usually anxious while watching India's big games, the thought of defeat never even occurred to anybody's mind.

The trio of Zaheer-Srinath-Nehra continued their Great form and bowled out Kenya for 179. We won the game by 91 runs. We were about to take on Australia in the World Cup Final 2003.