The ICC World Cup 2019 was supposed to be a batsmen's party and, so far, the tournament hasn’t been disappointing with numerous mesmerising knocks.
While some of them have come in thrilling and comprehensive victories, others have had to experience the bitter taste of defeat despite their best efforts. However, each of these knocks have been fabulous and will go down in history as one of the best in the tournament.
Here's a look at some of the innings that have come to define World Cup 2019:
Rohit Sharma – 122* vs South Africa
This was probably Rohit Sharma's best ODI innings ever and the same thought was iterated by the Indian skipper Virat Kohli in the post-match presentation ceremony as well.
It was India's tournament opener against South Africa and the bowlers had done a superb job by restricting South Africa to a total of only 227/9. The target seemed to be quite easy but a superb opening burst from Kagiso Rabada showed that they were not going to give up so easily.
The speedster removed both Shikhar Dhawan and Kohli cheaply to reduce India to 54/2 in the 16th over. However, Sharma hung on and produced a gem of an innings in tough conditions.
Sharma weathered the initial storm off without taking any aggressive approach and once the conditions started easing out a bit, opened up his arms to make most of the remaining deliveries.
He rendered the South African spinners – Imran Tahir and Tabraiz Shamsi – completely ineffective. Both of them went wicketless and conceded runs at an economy rate of around six.
Sharma stitched important partnerships of 85, 74 and 17 with the likes of KL Rahul, MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya respectively, and the result was a calm, composed and match-winning knock of 122 off 144 deliveries, that too, in tricky conditions.
Carlos Brathwaite – 101 vs New Zealand
All of us know Carlos Brathwaite for those four consecutive sixes in the last over against Ben Stokes that helped West Indies win the T20 World Cup in 2016. And he almost pulled off an almost similar and unbelievable act in their group encounter against New Zealand at Manchester this time.
West Indies were 142/4 in the 23rd over of their innings while chasing a target of 292 runs when Brathwaite walked out to bat. And he saw the situation becoming even worse as they lost their next three wickets in the space of just 22 runs. West Indies were staring down the barrel at 164/7. Brathwaite was their last hope but he hadn't done much since the World T20 final at the Eden Gardens.
However, what he produced in the next hour of play was a terrific innings once again. Wickets were falling at one end but he kept giving the charge from the other.
No matter where the Kiwi bowlers bowled, Brathwaite smashed them out of the ground.
A total of nine fours and five sixes in his innings are testimony to this fact. He stitched a 47, 34 and 41-run partnership with the eighth, ninth and tenth wickets respectively and took West Indies close to the total.
He brought up his century in the process too and, now, only needed to push his team over the line. He looked all set to finish it off in style when he hit a lofted shot off James Neesham's bowling to the long on boundary. However, fate denied him a victory this time as Trent Boult took an unbelievable catch to mark the end of his innings.
West Indies were bowled out, just five runs short of New Zealand's total. Even though Brathwaite's hundred came in a losing cause, it will still go down in World Cup history as one of the best knocks ever.
David Warner – 166 vs Bangladesh
The Australian opener has been in top-notch form since his comeback from the ball-tampering ban, and has made his bat talk in this World Cup with three centuries and over 600 runs to his name. The best of those three hundreds, however, came against Bangladesh at Nottingham.
It was a delightful knock of 166 runs off just 147 deliveries, but the most fascinating part was the way he paced his innings.
It was a good batting deck but there was some initial movement on offer for the Bangladeshi bowlers.
Warner started off with a steady and cautious approach as he waited for the movement to die down. As soon as it did, he went on a rampage. The southpaw carted Shakib Al Hasan all around the ground once he came into the attack. The destruction that Warner caused was visible in Shakib's bowling figures as he conceded 50 runs in his six overs.
In fact, five out of the six bowlers Bangladesh used conceded runs at an economy rate of more than seven. Only Mehidy Hasan was successful in tying Warner down as he conceded runs at an economy rate of 5.9 in his full quota of 10 overs.
Warner was, however, determined not to give his wicket away to him even as he found it pretty easy to face the other bowlers.
His whole innings consisted of 14 fours and five huge sixes and the bowlers had no idea about how to stop him. Australia eventually went on to post a massive total of 381/5, riding on his innings, and also went on to win the match comfortably by a 48-run margin.
Shikhar Dhawan – 117 vs Australia
It was India's second match at the World Cup, and they were up against defending champions Australia after a comprehensive victory over South Africa in their opening encounter.
A lot was at stake for the Men in Blue in this match as they had lost the home series against the same Australian side earlier in the year. India were hungry for a victory and knew that they needed to set the tone early in the match. And the openers helped them do just that as Shikhar Dhawan and Sharma got India off to a flying start.
Dhawan in particular, started off with an aggressive intent. The fact that he had been dismissed cheaply in the previous innings didn't bother him at all as he started playing his natural game.
And Sharma, as on most occasions when Dhawan is on song, obliged to watch from the other end. Australia's new ball duo of Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc were completely rendered ineffective.
None of them seemed like troubling Dhawan enough on a good batting deck as the southpaw made merry of their bowling. Yes, Cummins struck him on his thumb once with a short delivery and that was the only instance when the southpaw seemed to be in some trouble against him.
However, he carried on and went on to stitch together a stand of 127 runs with Rohit, which came to an end with the dismissal of the latter for 57 runs.
Even that didn’t deter him from playing his strokes as he shared yet another stand of 93 runs with Kohli in the next 15 overs. His innings consisted of shots all around the ground and was laced with a total of 16 boundaries.
He started becoming more aggressive after he reached his century and was finally dismissed for a superb knock of 117 off just 109 deliveries, while trying to hit Starc out of the ground for a six.
India went on to score 352/5 and later restricted Australia 36 runs short of their total to win the game. Unfortunately, that was the last appearance for Dhawan in this World Cup as he was ruled out with a thumb injury after this game.
Kane Williamson – 148 vs West Indies
The New Zealand skipper had also played a masterful knock of 148 in the same match Brathwaite played that magical knock of 101. The knock came under pressure after the Caribbean bowlers had reduced the Kiwis to 7/2 early in their innings.
Williamson had then consolidated the innings along with Ross Taylor, putting together a stand of 160 runs for the third wicket. It came to an end with Taylor's dismissal for an individual contribution of 69. However, the story was the same.
Wickets started falling at regular intervals and there was no support from Williamson at the other end. Nonetheless, he carried on and kept the runs flowing from one end. He didn't let the West Indian bowlers get on top of the game ever while he was at the crease and thus, dictated the pace of the game.
Kane was finally dismissed for an innings of 148 runs off 154 deliveries with the overall score on 251/5 in the 47th over. By the end, Williamson had scored 58.96 percentage of the total runs till then.
The rest of the tail went on to add 40 more runs to the total and what happened in the match next is known to everyone – New Zealand won by a narrow margin of five runs despite Brathwaite's heroics.
Rohit Sharma – 140 vs Pakistan
If his knocks of 122* against South Africa and 57 against Australia weren't enough, Rohit Sharma took his game a notch higher when India took on arch-rivals Pakistan in the next match.
India were batting first once again, and Sharma had a new opening partner in KL Rahul as Dhawan was out injured. However, that didn't stop him from going berserk once again as he put on 136 runs for the opening wicket along with Rahul.
The latter's contribution in that stand was only 57 runs and thus, it could be understood how much Sharma dominated this innings.
He attacked the Pakistani bowlers right from word go, not sparing any of them.
The 32-year-old is known to have a weakness against left-arm seamers, like Mohammad Amir, but was batting on a whole different level in this game. He was particularly aggressive against the spinners, who leaked a combined total of 132 runs in their 21 overs.
Just like his usual approach, Rohit became more aggressive after bringing up his century. And by the time he departed, he had already scored 140 runs off just 113 deliveries.
His innings was star-studded with 14 fours and three sixes, and India went on to post 336/5 riding on his fabulous knock. Rain interrupted the match later, but India ultimately won the match by 89 runs (DLS method).
Jonny Bairstow – 111 vs India
This century was special for both Jonny Bairstow and England. First of all, he had been getting those 50s and 60s earlier in the tournament but wasn't able to convert it into a big knock. And secondly, and more importantly, the hundred helped England bounce back in the tournament with a 31-run victory over India, after back-to-back losses to Sri Lanka and Australia.
Bairstow was very watchful at the start of the innings as the Indian bowlers bowled a terrific opening spell, beating his outside edge quite a few times. There were some inside edges that flew to the boundary behind the wicket as well, but Bairstow hung on.
Once settled down, conditions eased out a bit and he started playing his natural attacking game. He was particularly lethal against the Indian spinners along with his partner Jason Roy.
The duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal conceded a dismal 148 runs in their combined quota of 20 overs. Bairstow put on 160 runs for the first wicket along with Roy in just 22 overs.
The brutality of the onslaught could be understood from this scoring rate. The stand came to an end with Roy's dismissal in the 23rd over for an individual contribution of 66 runs but Bairstow kicked on to get his much-awaited maiden World Cup hundred.
He was delighted when he got there and the happiness could be seen all over his face. He put on another 45 runs for the second wicket with Joe Root after which he was dismissed on an individual score of 111 runs off just 107 deliveries.
The main feature of his innings was the number of fours (10) and sixes (6) he hit as 68.46 percentage of his runs came in boundaries.
Shakib Al Hasan – 124* vs West Indies
Shakib has been one of the star performers of this tournament as he scored over 600 runs and also claimed a total of 11 wickets. His best knock came against West Indies at Taunton as his innings of an unbeaten 124 helped Bangladesh to chase down a daunting target of 322 runs set by the West Indies.
The situation needed someone to carry on the momentum as Bangladesh had lost their first wicket after putting on 52 runs on the board in the first eight overs. Shakib walked out at the crease and increased the intensity of their scoring further with some delightful strokes on both sides of the wicket.
Bangladesh seemed to be on a roll with yet another partnership of 69 runs for the second wicket. However, they lost two quick wickets to be reduced to 133/3 in the 19th over.
Bangladesh have been in this situation before when the chase has just fizzled out after a good start. However, Shakib, along with an able partner in Liton Das, ensured that it wasn't going to happen this time. The duo put on 189 runs for the fourth wicket to chase down the total with 8.3 overs to spare.
Shakib remained unbeaten on 124 off just 99 deliveries and Das also gave him good company, being unbeaten on 94 off 69 deliveries.
Angelo Mathews – 113 vs India
The former Sri Lankan captain hadn't done much in the tournament except his innings of 85* in the win against England. However, he gave his fans something to cheer for with a superb innings in Sri Lanka's last league match against India.
Like most of the tournament, a similar story followed for Sri Lanka in this match as they lost early wickets to be reduced to 55/4. Even the middle-order hadn't been up to the mark as they had been bowled out for paltry totals during most of their matches.
However, Mathews had decided that it was going to be a bit different this time as he put down his anchor and started batting with rock-solid determination.
Runs were hard to come by in the beginning but he carried on and started scoring as he got a measure of the pitch.
An able partner in Lahiru Thirimanne at the other end only helped his cause. He played some delightful strokes and the best part of his innings was the way he handled the Indian spinners who were getting enough assistance from the pitch.
Thirimanne was also playing well at the other end and the result was a 124-run stand for the fifth wicket that dug Sri Lanka out of the hole. The partnership came to an end with Thirimanne's dismissal on an overall score of 179. However, Mathews carried on and went on to score a memorable century at Leeds, a venue he has always loved batting at.
He was finally dismissed on a score of 113 off 128 deliveries in the 49th over but Sri Lanka had already reached a respectable total of 253 runs by then. They posted 264/7 in the end. Although it didn't turn out to be a match-winning innings, it was a good way to end what was otherwise a pretty disappointing campaign.
Babar Azam – 101* vs New Zealand
Pakistan were in trouble after they lost an early wicket for just 19 runs on the board during their chase of 238 runs against New Zealand at Birmingham. That was when their most prolific batsman, Babar Azam, walked out to bat.
He further saw them getting reduced to 44/2 but it was his calmness and determination that helped Pakistan to get out of that tricky situation.
With the presence of an experienced Mohammad Hafeez at the other end, Azam kicked along at a decent rate. He focused more on rotating the strike but didn't miss out on pouncing on the bad deliveries whenever they were on offer.
Everything was going on smoothly until New Zealand dealt another blow in the 25th over to reduce Pakistan to 110/3. Hafeez was out for 32 runs and Azam had a new partner in Haris Sohail at the other end.
Azam's calm presence at one end helped Sohail to get off to a good start as well and together, they put on another 126 runs.
As Sohail went on the attack from one end, Azam milked the bowling from the other. Sohail was ultimately run out with six more runs remaining but Azam completed the job with his maiden World Cup hundred.
(Prasenjit Dey is a freelance cricket writer. He can be reached at @CricPrasen. The opinions expressed are the author’s own and The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)r
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