Year in Review: Top 5 ODI performances of the year 2013

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are the author’s own. They do not reflect those of the website as a whole.

Another tough job, this!

With these kind of lists, one often misses out on knocks that have sent spectators into an ecstatic, cacophonic frenzy of shouts, screams, whistles and even firecrackers. The same applies to the category of magnificent bowling performances. At each and every turn, it becomes difficult to narrow things down to five outstanding pieces of brilliance.

2013 in ODIs has, for the most part, belonged to the batsmen. Be it Aaron Finch’s blazing 148 against Scotland on the back of the Ashes humiliation that Australia suffered, or Virat Kohli’s amazing purple patch, there are certain classical performances that are often overlooked. Dale Steyn’s six-wicket haul against Pakistan is an example of disciplined, hostile pace bowling, while the deeds of Misbah-ul-Haq, Glenn Maxwell and George Bailey are nothing short of heroic.

Condensing everything down into one single list of performances has required me to exercise every bit of restraint I possess, since I just didn’t want to leave anything out. The five superb performances that have been chosen are simply a snapshot of the entire year, and not just individual bits of brilliance.

5. Nawroz Mangal – 112* (Afghanistan vs Scotland, Sharjah, March 2013)

Nawroz Mangal – Putting Afghanistan on the cricket map

Associate nations have it rough when it comes to playing with the big boys. But when you hear of a superlative performance from a front-line batsman of a war-torn country’s cricket team, you are bound to sit up and take notice.

Nawroz Mangal played one of the best knocks of his career, and a rapid one at that. The way he went about bludgeoning the hapless Scottish bowlers evoked memories of Kevin O’Brien’s unbridled assault on England at the 2011 World Cup. It took him barely eight deliveries to move from the seventies to his maiden three-figure score, and he reached the landmark with a thumping boundary.

Undeterred by the fact that his side were already three wickets down, Mangal played out of his skin, and took the Afghans home with a little over sixteen overs to spare.

Certainly a match-winning performance from the former skipper, who has risen to the occasion more than once for his side!

4. Martin Guptill – 189*(NZ vs England, Southampton, June 2013)

Martin Guptill – Demolition Man

Ruthless as ever, the Kiwi opener might just have signalled the downturn of England’s fortunes in the latter half of the year. The more amazing fact is that he did it in less than forty-eight hours after making a hundred in the opening game of the three-match series.

Guptill was on point right from the word go. Focusing on keeping the scorecard ticking, he did not unleash his brutality until he had progressed to his century in 111 deliveries. He started the carnage in only the final ten overs of the innings, when he knew most of the bowlers would be tired and Alastair Cook would have to gamble with whatever he had left.

With the power-hitting Ross Taylor and skipper Brendon McCullum for company, Guptill went into overdrive, creaming the hapless bowlers all over the park as he piled on the runs. In a manner reminiscent of the legendary Viv Richards, the right hander deposited seamer Ben Woakes’ attempted short delivery into the stands – off the front foot- with utter disdain.

Even the wily Graeme Swann had no clue about how to counter the marauder; his first delivery was dispatched through cover, only emphasizing the tough day in the field for his side.

Guptill finished unbeaten on 189, the highest ever ODI score made by a New Zealand player. If not for Jonathan Trott’s resolute century in England’s turn at the crease, the home side would have collapsed like nine-pins.

Easily one of the best innings this year!

3. James Anderson – 5/34 (England vs NZ, Napier, Feb 2013)

James Anderson – Swinging it for England

Now, limited-overs cricket is not just about those who wield the willow like a sub-machine gun. It is also about those guys who can make the white ball talk, making the rival camp quake in their boots. Jimmy Anderson did just that at Napier against the Black Caps.

The Lancashire seamer produced a fine spell of swing and pace as he quietly demolished the Kiwi line-up despite Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum landing hefty blows in a whirlwind alliance. Debutant Hamish Rutherford just wafted outside the off stump to a length delivery from Anderson, and promptly began the walk back to the pavilion. Watling had fallen to the same trick before, and the Burnley Express had given away only eleven runs in his six-over first spell.

He returned to dismiss Nathan McCullum before getting the prized wicket of Taylor, using a delivery that moved back in a bit and cramped the latter for room, and cleaned up the tail to finish with only his second five-for in ODI cricket. A bit ironic, considering the fact that his first five-wicket haul came in the World Cup ten years ago!

For sheer accuracy and miserly economy, this performance makes it to the top five on this list.

2. Shahid Afridi – 76 & 7/12 (Pakistan vs West Indies, Providence, St Kitts, July 2013)

Shahid Afridi – The Starman’s still got it!

All rounders will never die out from the game as long as the likes of Boom Boom Afridi are still around. The mercurial maverick has a knack for being unpredictable, and this game was one of those instances where this trait of his served to pilot his side to a crushing victory over the shell-shocked Caribbean squad.

Afridi is a walking time bomb – set to go off any second – and every international side is aware of this. For the major part of 2013, he would implode, leaving his side in the lurch more often than not. But he chose exactly the right stage to explode like a ton of bricks – calls for his removal from the squad had become increasingly loud since he had nothing to show in his previous six matches.

Jason Holder, one of the younger breed of West Indian pacers, had ripped through the Pakistani top order in an impressive display of speed and control. Misbah-ul-Haq stood resolute at one end, as has been his wont all year. Then Afridi walked in, and mayhem followed.

He blasted his third ball for a huge six, and attacked spinners Marlon Samuels and Sunil Narine with gay abandon, his kamikaze style of play proving to be highly effective. With Misbah, he pulled the side out of the hole they had dug themselves into, and steered them to a respectable score.

The fairytale didn’t end there. Using his mix of leg spinners, quicker ones, the odd off-break and the rare googly, Afridi winkled out seven of the West Indian batsmen, snuffing out any hopes of a fight that the crowd had waited for. Single-handed, the Pathan routed the opposition for just 98 – an abysmal score by today’s standards – as he finished with the second best bowling figures in ODIs.

The Starman isn’t calling it quits any time soon!

1. Rohit Sharma – 209 (India vs Australia, Bengaluru, November 2013)

Rohit Sharma – Destiny’s child

Former South African batting great Barry Richards had once voiced his concerns about how bowling was fast losing its relevance in the 50-over arena. His reasoning was justified after the carnage that was witnessed by all in Bengaluru on a chilly November day, though it can be said that the bowlers on either side were too flummoxed to respond adequately to the assault launched.

When you have an opening batsman wielding a willow marked TON, you, in excitement, assume that he will score a century.

Rohit Sharma, long reviled by critics for his inconsistency and temperament, did one better – he achieved what only two other batting legends have attained in recent times: a double hundred in ODI cricket. And not only was it a brutal innings, but also a refined one. Polished aggression – a new phrase in the dictionary of the current crop of Indian cricketers – seems to have worked wonders for the Mumbai lad.

Initially, though, Sharma was on the hit list of the spectators – he had run out Virat Kohli, the man in red-hot form – and nothing in his game suggested that he would go on to bigger and better things. With Australia’s chief weapon Mitchell Johnson sent home to prepare for the Ashes and all-rounder Shane Watson struck down by injury, Rohit seized his chance and went hammer and tongs on the rest of the bowling. Glenn Maxwell’s part-time spin yielded rich dividends for the Men in Blue, while Xavier Doherty, Clint McKay and James Faulkner also came under relentless hitting.

Such was his display of power that even MS Dhoni’s unorthodox stroke-play later in the innings was put to shade. Rohit finally fell for 209 – going past the legendary Sachin Tendulkar but within striking distance of Virender Sehwag – as India amassed a massive total. If not for Faulkner’s heroics down the order and a Watson-Maxwell blitz during the middle overs, Australia would have headed home in shame. But India were not to be denied, and the mountain of runs Sharma had piled up was eventually too steep to climb.

In terms of sheer entertainment, substance and style, this one belongs right at the top!