Recap: 2011 Cricket World Cup

The World Cup tournament returned to the Indian sub-continent in 2011. This time it was India, Sri Lanka & Bangladesh who co-hosted the tournament. This tournament was played by 14 teams divided into two groups of seven teams each with the top four teams qualifying for the quarter-finals. No new team made its debut in this World Cup. The two groups were as follows:

Group A - Australia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya. Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand qualified for the quarter-finals.

Group B - India, South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Ireland and Netherlands. South Africa, India, England and West Indies qualified for the quarter-finals.

The quarter-finals saw Pakistan defeat West Indies by 10 wickets, India defeat Australia by five wickets, New Zealand defeat South Africa by 49 runs & Sri Lanka defeat England by 10 wickets to make it to the semi-finals.

Sri Lanka and India made it to the finals by defeating New Zealand by 5 wickets and Pakistan by 29 runs respectively. This would be the first time in the history of the tournament that the finals would be played between two Asian teams.

In the finals, India defeated Sri Lanka by six wickets to become the third team after West Indies and Australia to win the World Cup at least twice. Yuvraj Singh was named as the Player of the Tournament.

Some of the key performances from the tournament are mentioned below.

Batting performances:

370/4 by India against Bangladesh was the highest team total in the 2011 World Cup.

500 runs scored by Tillakaratne Dilshan of Sri Lanka were the most number of runs scored by a player in the 2011 World Cup.

175 scored by Virender Sehwag of India against Bangladesh was the highest individual score by a player in the tournament.

24 centuries were scored in the tournament.

2 centuries scored by AB de Villiers of South Africa, Mahela Jayawardene of Sri Lanka, Ryan ten Doeschate of Netherlands, Sachin Tendulkar of India, Tillakaratne Dilshan of Sri Lanka and Upul Tharanga of Sri Lanka each were the most number of centuries scored by a player in the 2011 World Cup.

5 half-centuries scored by Jonathan Trott of England were the most number of half-centuries scored by a player in the 2011 World Cup.

Bowling performances:

21 wickets taken by Zaheer Khan of India and Shahid Afridi of Pakistan each were the most number of wickets taken by a player in the 2011 World Cup.

6/27 by Kemar Roach of West Indies against the Netherlands was the best bowling performance by a player in the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

9 five-wicket hauls were taken in the 2011 World Cup.

2 five-wicket hauls taken by Shahid Afridi of Pakistan was the most number of five-wicket hauls taken by a player in the 2011 World Cup.

Wicketkeeping performances:

14 dismissals by Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka were the most number of dismissals by a wicket-keeper in the 2011 World Cup.

4 dismissals by Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka against Canada, Brad Haddin of Australia against England, Matt Prior of England against South Africa and Morne van Wyk of South Africa against Ireland were the most dismissals by a wicket-keeper in an innings in the 2011 World Cup.

Fielding performances:

8 catches taken by Mahela Jayawardene of Sri Lanka were the most number of catches taken by a player in the 2011 World Cup.

3 catches taken by Alexei of the Netherlands against West Indies, Elton Chigumbura of Zimbabwe against Sri Lanka, Ross Taylor of New Zealand against Canada and Zaheer Khan of India against Australia were the most number of catches taken by a player in a single match at the 2011 World Cup.