The ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 in England has seen some brilliant performances from players of all countries. While some of the World Cup 2019 highlights are from the batting department, some from the bowling department while others are from the fielders.
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Here we have a look at some of them:
Ben Stokes’ one-handed catch
England all-rounder Ben Stokes took a blinder in the opening game of the World Cup against South Africa. In the 35th over of the second innings, Adil Rashid bowled the first ball to Andile Phehlukwayo. He slog swept it to deep mid-wicket where Stokes was stationed a few meters inside the boundary rope. The ball was going over his head when he leaped into the air and grabbed the ball in his right hand. The crowd reaction behind the boundary summed up the effort. He was also awarded the ‘Man of the Match’ for his 89 runs with the bat.
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West Indies bounce out Pakistan
Pakistan faced West Indies in the 2nd match of the tournament. The West Indians used the commonly used tactic against subcontinent batsmen, ‘the short ball’. They bowled their short balls well and had the batsmen in a fix. Seven Pakistani batsmen fell prey to the well directed bouncers. Imam edged one on the leg side, Fakhar dropped a bouncer onto the stumps, Sohail and Babar got an outside edge on a slap outside off, Imad and Hassan played nothing shots on bouncers and Hafeez got rushed on the pull and fell to long leg. The Men In Green were bundled out 105 in 130 balls (21.4 overs). The West Indian batsmen chased down the total comfortably with only Amir picking 3 wickets.
Eoin Morgan’s blitzkrieg
England skipper Eoin Morgan came out to bat against Afghanistan in the 30th over with the score 164/2. He took on the bowlers without taking a few balls to settle down. He open fired even against their best bowler Rashid Khan. He went from 0 to 50 in 36 balls, 51 to 100 in the next 21 balls and from 101 to 148 in another 13 balls as he ended with 148 off 71 balls to his name. Morgan hit 17 sixes on that day, which is a world record for most number of sixes hit in an ODI innings. He went past Rohit Sharma, AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle who had 16 each. It was also a record for most sixes in an ODI innings by a team as the England batsmen hit 25. Rashid Khan conceded the second-most runs in a World Cup game (110). Morgan’s 148 set up a 150-run win over England.
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Sri Lanka stun the hosts
The Lankans managed to score 232/9 in their 50 overs with the help of Mathews’ 85 and a couple of forties from Avishka Fernando (49) and Kusal Mendis (46). A target of 233 at a rate of 4.66 runs per over seemed an easy task for the mighty English batsmen. However, they had to pass the veteran Malinga (4/43) hurdle, which they couldn’t. The slingy armed Malinga claimed Bairstow on his first ball. The other opener James Vince followed some time later. Udana took a sharp one-handed catch of Morgan off his own bowling to spark some panicky thoughts in the fans of the England team. However, they seemed to catch fire after Malinga claimed his third wicket in the form of Joe Root. The rest fell at regular intervals and the chase never looked in-sync. Stokes (82*) was the only man fighting for England and remained not out to see the Lankans celebrating a huge victory.
Mohammad Shami’s hattrick
Afghanistan almost did a Bangladesh of 2007 to India. The Indian batsmen never got going on a slow track as only Virat Kohli (67) and Kedar Jadhav (52) recorded half-centuries. They scored 224/8 in their 50 overs. The Afghanistan batsmen provided a scare to the Indian bowlers who seemed to get away with a victory. Mohammad Nabi had almost taken the game away from India. It was the dangerous duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami that ensured that there wasn’t another upset. Afghanistan needed 21 runs to win off 12 balls with 3 wickets in hand. The No.1 ranked ODI bowler conceded just 4 runs in the penultimate over and the onus was on Shami to ensure a smooth sailing for Team India. Nabi got a four and a dot off the first two balls. He holed out to Hardik Pandya at long on and technically, that was it for the Afghans. It was plain and simple for the No. 10 & 11 batsmen, hit out or get out. Both, chose the second one. Aftab Alam came in and went for the wild slog, missed and saw his stumps dismantled. Shami was on a hattrick. Mujeeb Ur Rahman didn’t do anything different as Shami took out his leg stump and created history! He became the second Indian bowler and the ninth overall to take a hat trick in Cricket World Cups.
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Carlos Brathwaite almost pulls off a nail-biter
New Zealand had set a target of 292 for West Indies with the help of their skipper Kane Williamson’s 148. After losing a couple of early wickets, Chris Gayle (87) and Shimron Hetmyer (54) had a bit of a partnership. Once Hetmyer fell, they had a mini collapse with Brathwaite holding fort at one end. He walked in when Holder got out in the 23rd over of the innings with West Indies needing 150 runs to win. They lost another 3 wickets in the next 22 runs and the target seemed impossible. This is when Carlos took the center stage and started tonking the ball all over the park. He hit 9 fours and 5 sixes to get to his maiden ODI century off just 81 balls. They needed just 6 runs to win off 7 balls. Carlos had the confidence in his big shots and tried to finish off the game in the penultimate over with a pull over log on. However, the ball got big on him and the mistimed shot holed to Boult at cow corner. The scenes at The Old Trafford were nothing short of heartbreaking.
Shakib’s all-round show
Shakib Al Hasan has looked a more promising batsman after promoting himself to No. 3. He proved why he is the No. 1 all-rounder in ODIs at the moment after shining bright with the bat and the ball against Afghanistan. He registered his 45th ODI half-century while helping Bangladesh to 262/7 in their 50 overs. He made sure that the Afghan batsmen had nowhere to go as he scalped four of the top 5 batsmen. He was pretty miserly too as he conceded just 29 runs in his 10 overs including a maiden over. He picked their skipper Gulbadin Naib and former skipper Mohammad Nabi in the same over to break the backbone of their run-chase. He became only the second player in the history of the World Cup to score a half-century and take a fifer in the same match. He also became the first player in the history of the World Cups to score 1000+ runs and take 30+ wickets.
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With the tournament still going on, there will be many additions in the ICC Cricket World Cup highlights.
Here are some of the major highlights of World Cup 2019 so far which can't be missed:
