Top 5 World Cup Underachievers: Part 2 - Batsmen

While my preceding article on World Cup (WC) underachieving bowlers did not have any major surprises in store, I cannot say the same about the corresponding list of batsmen, which concludes my tetralogy on WC specialists and underachievers.Two countries, on contrasting ends of the spectrum as far as WC success in recent years is concerned, account for 4 out of 5 batsmen on the list. While one of them dominated the signature tournament in 50-over cricket over the last two decades in spite of their designated finishers not living up to their performances in lesser One Day International (ODI) engagements, the other was hit severely by the failure of two of their premier batsmen. The only entrant outside of these two countries has quite a bizarre story of his own.The methodology remains much the same as that used for the rest of the series, in order to maintain consistency:Minimum qualification: 5000 runs overallScore: This has been calculated by multiplying the two essential parameters a batsman is assessed upon – Average and Strike Rate (SR). For example, a batsman with an average of 50 and an SR of 100 will have a score of 50 x 100 = 5000. As with most statistics associated with batting, higher the score, better is the performance.Greater the difference between their career scores and the WC scores, the higher will the batsman feature on this list.Read on, and brace yourself to get shocked – I certainly was!

#5 Mohammad Yousuf

Easily Pakistan’s most consistent player through the 2000s, Mohammed Yousuf had a mediocre WC career, which would have looked even more dismal had his figures not been boosted by runs against some of the weaker nations playing in the tournament.

The 1999 WC in England saw the elegant right-hander compete for a place in the XI against a young man exactly his opposite in terms of approach to cricket, Shahid Afridi, a battle eventually won by the latter, who became a permanent fixture towards the business end of the tournament. Yousuf’s best performance came against Scotland, where his 81* was instrumental in rescuing the team from 92-5 to a respectable 261, and helped Pakistan avoid the ignominy of losing to two minnows (the 62-run loss against Bangladesh was a couple of matches away) in the same tournament.

The Lahore-born batsman continued to rely on runs made off lesser opponents in the 2003 WC in South Africa – 101 runs out of his tournament total of 170 came in two innings against Netherlands and Namibia. He never got going against a Test-paying nation, hitting a nadir with his first-ball duck against England, getting bowled by James Anderson, himself a notorious WC underachiever.

With Pakistan following in the footsteps of neighbor India in beating a hasty retreat in the 2007 edition, Yousuf ended his unhappy association with the marquee ODI tournament with 55 runs off 3 matches at an average of 18.33.

	Matches	Runs	Average	SR	Score	Score Differential
Overall	288	9720	41.71	75.10	3132.4	871.6
WC	13	386	32.16	70.30	2260.8

#4 Michael Bevan

Easily the biggest misfit on this list, Michael Bevan epitomizes the concept of relative underachievement in a WC better than anyone else. His WC batting average of 44.75 would have been considered a proud achievement for any batsman, but when compared alongside his career ODI average of 53.58, it is indeed a significant dip.

The left-hander, one of the best finishers in ODI cricket, suffered mostly on account of a poor 1996 tournament, which is surprising, given that it came a few months after possibly the best innings of his life, against West Indies in the 5th match of the Benson & Hedges World Series, where he single-handedly rescued Australia from 38-6, in a run-chase of 172, and sealed a 1-wicket victory by hitting a boundary off the final ball.

He was however, one of the architects, along with Shane Warne, of a near-impossible victory against the very Caribbean team in the 2nd semi-final at Chandigarh, when his 69 rescued the Australians from a precarious 15-4 to a respectable 207, before the West Indies imploded from 165-2 to 202 all out, spurred by an excellent spell by the leg-spinning genius.

Bevan was back to his usual self in the 1999 and 2003 editions, though he never quite won as many games as was his norm in regular ODI engagements. His more memorable innings included the contribution of 65 in the famous tied semi-final match against South Africa in 1999, and perhaps the only time when we saw a typical Bevan innings in a WC – against England at Port Elizabeth in the 2003 WC, where he scored 74*, and with Number 10 batsman Andy Bichel for company, rescued Australia from 135-8 in a chase of 205, and guided them home with 2 balls to spare.

	Matches	Runs	Average	SR	Score	Score Differential
Overall	232	6912	53.58	74.16	3973.5	1092.5
WC	26	537	44.75	64.38	2881.0

#3 Inzamam-ul-Haq

One of Pakistan’s greatest Test cricketers of all-time, Inzamam-ul-Haq had pretty impressive ODI figures as well, scoring 11,000+ runs at an average of nearly 40, but came a cropper in WCs, scoring at just 23.9 in 35 matches spread across 5 tournaments, crossing 50 on just four occasions, none of which culminated in a century.

The storyline was quite similar across the first three tournaments of the big right-hander’s career – flashes of brilliance in a couple of games, offset by failures in the remaining. Inzamam played the best innings of his WC career in his inaugural appearance at the tournament, in 1992, when his 60 off 37 balls dismantled probably the best-ever New Zealand showing in a WC in the semi-finals, and put Pakistan on course for their maiden and till-date only triumph on the biggest stage of ODI cricket. Cricinfo hailed the innings as the arrival of a great batsman, but it was not to be, at least in the WC context.

Amid a largely disappointing 1996 edition, Inzamam played a match-winning 53* against England at Karachi, but did little else over the course of the tournament, which ended for him with a tame dismissal off Venkatesh Prasad against arch-rivals India in the quarter-finals at Bangalore.

The right-hander fared better at the 1999 WC in England, scoring in excess of 250 runs in the tournament, the only time he did so in his WC career. Inzamam’s authoritative 81 against Australia in the group stage helped Pakistan inflict a rare defeat on a team in red-hot form, and he continued his affinity for Kiwi bowlers, smashing a 61-ball 73 off them in another group match. His solidity in the middle order was instrumental in Pakistan reaching the tournament final, where Australia exacted sweet revenge with a crushing victory.

My vocabulary fails me in describing Inzamam’s 2003 WC outing, where he scored 19 runs in 6 innings at an average of 3.16 and failed to reach double figures against every opposition, which even included Namibia and the Netherlands. Understandably axed, he clawed his way back into the ODI side on the back of successful Test performances, and led his side to an unceremonious first-round exit in the 2007 WC, to draw curtains on his international ODI career.

	Matches	Runs	Average	SR	Score	Score Differential
Overall	378	11739	39.52	74.24	2934.0	1151.
WC	35	717	23.90	74.60	1782.9

#2 Carl Hooper

One of the few to witness first-hand both the glorious era as well as the decline of West Indies cricket, Carl Hooper, a reliable middle-order batsman through his ODI career, had a miserable WC record, making just 261 runs in 20 matches at an average of 18.64, which included just a solitary 50 to speak of as a landmark.

The Guyanese made his WC debut shortly after his international one, during the 1987 edition held in India and Pakistan, and created absolutely no ripples with the bat, making 42 runs in 6 matches, with a best of 22 against Pakistan. He fared better with the ball in hand, snaring 7 wickets at an average of 25.85.

Hooper scored 63 against Zimbabwe in the 1992 edition, but could not even reach 5 against Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa. His only contribution of substance with the bat came against India, his 34* providing able support to Keith Arthurton in overhauling the modest 198 run target (revised to 195 after rain intervened).

The hard-hitting right hander pulled out of the West Indies WC 1996 squad a day after it was announced, ‘given his mental and physical state over the past year,’ as reported by the Independent. Hooper continued playing hide-n-seek with ODI cricket’s premier tournament, dropping out of the 1999 World Cup squad as well, and even announced his retirement from cricket, saying "my heart was not in it anymore".

However, in a bizarre turn of events, which can probably be best captured by a line from a popular Bollywood film which roughly translates to ‘the movie is not yet over, my friend,’ Hooper returned to the West Indies team, as captain, and led them in a disastrous 2003 WC campaign, post which he again announced retirement, this time for good.

	Matches	Runs	Average	SR	Score	Score Differential
Overall	227	5761	35.34	76.63	2708.1	1389.7
WC	20	261	18.64	70.73	1318.4

#1 Michael Hussey

It came as quite a shock to me that Mr. Cricket Michel Hussey stands head and shoulders above others on this list when it comes to deviation between WC and overall ODI career numbers. While his shortcomings as a finisher in the 2007 WC were more than ably covered by sparkling performances by almost everyone else in the team, a repeat show in the 2011 installment proved costly for the Australian side bereft of as many greats as possessed in previous editions.

The gritty left-hander, boasting a career batting average of 48.15 in 157 innings, most of which were played at batting positions between 5-7, was hailed as a natural successor to Bevan. However, Hussey not only shared his predecessor’s dip in form when playing in the premier event, but also significantly improved (read deteriorated) on it in the limited opportunities he got.

Hussey made his WC debut in the 2007 edition, and the fact that he never reached double figures in 4 out of 6 innings he played was overshadowed by consistently stellar knocks from Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting, as well as inspired bowling from the outgoing behemoth Glenn McGrath. The finisher’s mantle was ably donned by another Michael, Clarke, whose 436 runs in 11 matches at an average 87.2 more than overrode Hussey’s feeble 87 run contribution at an average of 17.4.

The 2011 WC in India kicked off on a dramatic note for Hussey, with him being left out of the initial squad, despite the southpaw taking the ‘drastic step of emailing Cricket Australia medicos and Australia's selectors Andrew Hilditch, Greg Chappell, David Boon and Jamie Cox to outline why he should be selected for the showpiece tournament’, as reported by the Daily Telegraph.

Hussey then earned a miraculous recall to the squad in the midst of the squad, surprisingly as a replacement for the injured Doug Bollinger. While he rewarded the selectors with a half-century in his very first game, against Kenya at Bangalore, the Western Australian did precious little in the following matches. His WC batting campaign ending at the hands of Zaheer Khan’s mystery-knuckle-ball for just 3 runs, in the quarter-final at Ahmedabad which sent the former champions packing.

	Matches	Runs	Average	SR	Score	Score Differential
Overall	185	5442	48.15	87.16	4196.8	2595.8
WC	15	156	19.50	82.10	1601.0