Cricket
Cricket
Top 5 World Cup batsmen of all time
These willow-wielders have made the showpiece event their fiefdom!
The ODI World Cup is again in the news, with the ‘100 days to World Cup’ celebrations taking off in Australia. The tournament is undoubtedly the single biggest event in the sport, and always attracts the attention of the entire cricket loving public.
Over the years, the tournament has only gained in importance and legacy. As teams prepare for the next edition in Australia 2015, let us have a look at the best batsmen in the history of the ODI World Cup.
Aravinda de Silva
Aravinda de Silva was a treat to watch when he played at his very best, there were not many batsmen who could come close to his beautiful stroke-making genius. De Silva was great against both spin and pace, and his performances in the 1996 ODI World Cup are a part of cricket folklore now. He played many match-winning knocks in that tournament, and was the key performer for Sri Lanka in their victories against India and Australia in the semi-final and final respectively. With over 1,000 runs to his name in the tournament, De Silva is truly a World Cup legend.
Javed Miandad
Javed Miandad played in the first six ODI World Cups, the only batsman at that time to do so. He is one of the best ODI batsmen to have ever come out of Pakistan, and was a key figure in their World Cup triumph in 1992 – he was the highest scorer for them in the knockout games. Miandad was a great judge at picking up quick ones and twos, and could hit with gay abandon when the situation demanded it. With 1,083 World Cup runs at an average of 43, Miandad’s place in the World Cup hall of fame is unarguable.
Ricky Ponting
Ponting was the backbone of Australia’s batting line up in the 2003 and 2007 World Cups, and his belligerent batting at the number three position helped the Kangaroos win many big matches. Ponting was at his very best in that four-year duration, and he often produced his best when his team needed it the most. Not many Indian fans would like to remember his knock in the 2003 World Cup final, which helped Australia take home the trophy with a fairly one-sided victory.
Vivian Richards
Viv Richards is perhaps the greatest cricketer in the history of ODI cricket, and his destructive batting was a class apart from his contemporaries in the shorter format. He averaged more than 47 and scored runs at a strike rate of greater than 90 in an era where a near 70 strike rate was considered very good. That average swelled to 63 in World Cup matches, which more than proves that he was an enormous success in the tournament. His match-winning century against England in the 1979 World Cup final is still remembered as one of the best ever ODI knocks.
Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin Tendulkar has been the most successful batsman in the history of ODI World Cup, and by quite some distance too. He was the highest run getter in the 1996 and 2003 editions of the tournament, where his batting made India a force to reckon with and almost single-handedly took them to victory in many matches. He finally tasted victory in 2011 when, under MS Dhoni, India won the World Cup for the second time, with 482 runs in the tournament for a gargantuan total of 2,278 in all editions.
This article is courtesy www.sportskeeda.com.
