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The fourth week of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 witnessed a lot of exciting action as the teams went about putting their best foot forward in order to strengthen their claim for a spot in the semifinals stages.
Quite contrary to the first few weeks, not a single match of the week faced rain issues as the teams were handed an opportunity to play the games at their entirety. Some of the top encounters of the week were the matches between England and Sri Lanka, India and Afghanistan and the one between New Zealand and West Indies.
These three matches inflicted some thrill in the tournament which had been majorly affected by rain and lopsided matches. With some closely contested matches giving rise to a lot of entertainment, there were a number of impressive performances with bat and ball.
Here is the best playing XI of the week based on the best of performances throughout the fourth week.
Openers - David Warner and Tamim Iqbal
Match - 1, Runs - 166, Fours - 14, Sixes - 5
Australian opener David Warner continued his top form in this World Cup 2019 in emphatic manner as he essayed a fantastic 147-ball 166 that took Australia to a commanding total of 381-5 from 50 overs.
Warner was slow to get off the blocks as he took 55 balls to score half-century and took a further 55 balls to get to his 100. However, he soon picked up the pace and smashed 65 runs from 37 balls to finish with 14 fours and five sixes in his epic knock.
Matches - 2, Runs - 110, Average - 55, Fours - 12, Sixes - 0
Surprisingly, a lot of openers recorded ducks in the fourth week of the World Cup. We had the likes of Jonny Bairstow, Chris Gayle, Noor Ali Zadran, Martin Guptill and Colin Munro lose their wickets without scoring a run. Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal emerged as the most consistent player among the openers as he scored 110 runs in 2 games.
The left-handed batsman registered a fluent half-ton against Australia, a solid 74-ball 62 but he missed out on a half-century versus the Windies, losing his wicket to a run-out as he walked back for a 53-ball 48.
Also read – Highest batting average in world cup
Middle Order - Virat Kohli (c), Kane Williamson and Eoin Morgan
Match - 1, Runs - 67, Fours - 5, Sixes - 0
Virat Kohli played a fantastic knock against Afghanistan on a difficult batting track. On a crumbling pitch that saw the Afghanistan bowlers strike at regular intervals, Kohli ensured that he stayed at the crease and brought out a wide array of strokes.
On the captaincy front, Virat Kohli did commendably well to rotate the bowlers and pile pressure on the Afghanistan batsmen in a crunch match that brought out the best of his captaincy skill as well.
Matches - 2, Runs - 254, Fours - 23, Sixes - 2
Kane Williamson has looked in some scintillating form in the last two encounters. The Kiwi skipper scored two hundreds in the fourth week of the tournament. Williamson notched up one of the best knocks of the tournament, a 106* run knock that helped NZ get across the line against South Africa.
In the game against West Indies, Williamson played the role of an anchor as his 154-ball 148 run knock took New Zealand to 291-8 from 50 overs from a situation of 0-2 in the first over.
Matches - 2, Runs - 168, Fours - 6, Sixes - 17
Eoin Morgan notched up the the best-ever inning of his career during his team's World Cup match versus Afghanistan. In a record-breaking 71-ball 148 run knock, Morgan hit 17 sixes and shattered the record for the most sixes in a single ODI innings.
Although Morgan could not replicate his brute knock against Sri Lanka with just 21 runs off 35 balls, the England skipper earns a spot in this team for his fantastic knock.
Wicket-keeper - Mushfiqur Rahim
Matches - 2, Runs - 103, Average - 103, Fours - 9, Six - 1
While it is true that Mushfiqur Rahim scored only a single run in the match against Windies, however, his century in the match against Australia hands him a spot in this team.
Given that the Australians have a strong bowling attack, Rahim's knock certainly spoke volumes of the wicket-keeper batsman's skill set with the bat in hand. Apart from this, his three catches behind the stumps made him the prime pick for this position.
All-rounders - Shakib Al Hasan and Carlos Brathwaite
Matches - 2, Runs - 165, Average - 165, Wickets - 2
Another Bangladesh player to feature in this team is Shakib Al Hasan. The all-rounder has impressed everyone with his batting performances in the World Cup. His match-winning 124* versus the West Indies in the week booked his place in this team. In the same game, he also picked two wickets to prove his all-round skill.
Against Australia, the all-rounder essayed a run-a-ball 41-run knock but in vain as Bangladesh fell short of their chase by 48 runs.
Match - 1, Runs - 101, Fours - 9, Sixes - 5; Wickets - 2
Burly all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite featured in just one of West Indies' two games in the fourth week and still makes the squad, courtesy of his scintillating 82-ball 101 that almost stole the match away from New Zealand.
Chasing 292 against a strong New Zealand bowling line-up, West Indies found themselves in trouble at 164-7 from 26.5 overs as Kemar Roach walked in to join Brathwaite with them needing 128 runs from 23.1 overs.
Brathwaite took up the onus of the scoring as he made his way to a mind-boggling century comprising of nine fours and five sixes but was unfortunate to end on the losing side. Apart from his century, Brathwaite also picked two crucial wickets and was his side's best player on the day.
Bowlers - Lockie Ferguson, Jasprit Bumrah and Lasith Malinga
Matches - 2, Wickets - 6, Best Match Figures - 3/59
One of the three pacers in New Zealand's pace battery, Lockie Ferguson has risen above the likes of Trent Boult and Matt Henry in terms of wickets with 14 wickets from five games.
In the fourth week, the right-arm quick picked six wickets in two games and had figures of 3/59 in both the matches. His double strike in the match against West Indies proved to be the game changer as Ferguson removed the well set Hetmyer and captain Jason Holder off successive deliveries to hand New Zealand an advantage in the game.
Match - 1, Wickets - 2, Best Match Figures - 2/39
Jasprit Bumrah picked two important wickets in the middle overs against Afghanistan and his role proved to be important that stemmed the run-flow. Had Bumrah not taken the wickets of Rahmat Shah and Hashmatuallah Shahidi, Afghanistan could have well gone on to win the game.
For his efforts, Bumrah was awarded with the 'man of the match' and rightly so.
Match - 1, Wickets - 4, Match Figures - 4/43
Lasith Malinga's bowling spell at Headlingey is the reason why this World Cup is still alive. If England would have won that match then most of the remaining matches would have become dead rubbers. However, the experienced fast bowler took the wickets of James Vince, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler and Joe Root to win his side the game.
At a point when it looked like Sri Lanka were down and out, Malinga brought all his skill to the fore and made an impact with his variations and was one of the best bowlers all through the week.
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