Records at world cup ..

There have been a lots of occasions of sudden ups and downs for any player or team in the previous editions of the tourney. It took some of the tough players to storm hard at the opponent teams, and when the time was really tough, the tougher players have risen to the occasion and have seen their team through.

This reminds me to quote the players who have played a vital role in the world cup wins for their countries. Lets have a look at some of the previous records:

Man of the match at the finals of each world cup

1975 world cup : West Indies --> MoM : Clive Llyod (102 runs)
1979 world cup : West Indies --> MoM : Viv Richards (138*)
1983 world cup : India --> MoM : Mohinder Amarnath (26 and 3-12)
1987 world cup : Australia --> MoM : David Boon (75)
1992 world cup : Pakistan --> MoM : Wasim Akram (33 and 3-49)
1996 world cup : Sri Lanka --> MoM : Aravinda de Silva (107 and 3-42)
1999 world cup : Australia --> MoM : Shane Warne (4-33)
2003 world cup : Australia --> MoM : Ricky Ponting (140*)

Since 1992 world cup the 'Player of the world cup' is being awarded. The players who left their mark even if their teams may not have lifted the cup that year :

1992 world cup : Martin Crowe, captain of New Zealand was really consistent with his bat and also brought in innovative idieas with slog over approach in first 15 overs and spinner in Deepak Patel leading the bowling attack.

1996 cup was dominated by the then minnows Sri Lanka, spearheaded by Sanath Jaisuriya with his extra fast performance with the bat and a good supportive role with the bowl.

1999 world cup saw a desperate attempt from the Zulu, Lance Klusner of South Africa who almost took RSA in the finals almost single handedly. Effort in vain for the very unfortunate run-outs in the history of cricket.

2003 event saw the Indian master blaster at his best, hitting on target in almost all the matches but the Big final against Australia. In the process, he took the team to finals with the help of his team members, also scored the highest runs in the world cup.


2007, hain koi jawab ?

Bangladeshi, Irish minnows pull off BIG WC upsets ..

It was Bangladesh and Ireland, the teams which ruled the 5th day of the World Cup.

Right from the word go the Bangladeshi boys just dominated the big on paper Indian side. Be it blowing, batting, fielding.. they were better in every part of the game. Moreover the Indian boys just could just show glimpse of boys with winning attitude.Winning the toss the Indians chose to bat first. With almost every batsman struggling to play the Indians were all out for a formidable total of 191. The Sehwags, Dravids, Tendulkars did not look comfortable against both the seam and spin attack of Bangladesh. With Saurav Ganguly (66), Yuraj Singh (47) and a vital contribution of about 30 odd runs for the last wicket between Zaheer and Munaf saw India posting a a150+ score. Chasing a small total, the Bangladeshis looked all confident specially the 17 yr old guy Tamim Iqbal smashing Zaheer-Munaf-Agarkar trio all over the place. Tamim scored a quick fifty putting India in a very tough to recover position. Munaf's quick two wickets revived the hopes of 1oo million ppl back home in India. But Mishfiqur Rahim and Saqibul Hasan played out matured innings to see Bangladesh through.

With this result Bangladesh is all set for their remaining Group B ties - with Bermuda and Srilanka. On the other hand India have a do or die situation in their matches against Bermuda and Srilanka.

Another big upset for the day was Ireland's victory over Pakistan. Ireland continued their dream run in the world cup by crushing Pakistan, in their second WC match. The Irish attack bundled out the Pakistan batting line-up for 130 odd runs and made the stage for their batsmen to finish of things. Ireland managed to get the total with 50 spare balls and 3 wickets in hand. The result ensured a place in second round for the debutant Irish boys while the humiliation sent Pakistan packing with no hopes of qualifying in the next round.

Hosts Got a Good Start

After losing badly form India in there last warm up match West Indies got a very good start in first match of World Cup 2007 against Pakistan. West Indies secured precious 2 points by defeating Pakistan by 54 runs in a group D match. West Indies scored 241 for nine and then bowled Pakistan out for 187.

Dwayne Smith was declared man of the match. He scored 32 runs from 15 balls and also claimed three wickets which includes wickets of Mohammad Yousuf and Inzammam-ul-Haq. I am sure Caribbean girls must be impressed by his performance as we can see some dancing happy girls in stadium from our television set. ;-)

Other major contributions from hosts side include Marlon Samuels's 63, Sarwan's 49 and Lara's 37 while from Pakistani side Shoaib Malik scored 62 which includes two sixes but no help.

Today there is Australia Vs Scotland and Canada Vs Kenya and I will watch Canada's efforts to win over Kenya or vice-versa.