World Cup 2019 wrap: Standout player, biggest dud, best quote – Rohit, Bairstow, Dhoni feature in week 5 wrap

Three of the four semi-finalists have been ascertained and the fourth is knocking on the door as the ICC World Cup 2019 moves towards the business end. India, England, and Australia all made the semifinal this week helped by their star performers. Here’s a roundup of the week gone by.

Standout players – Jonny Bairstow and Rohit Sharma

Two opening batsmen, two batsmen capable of playing the long innings came to their respective team’s rescue as Rohit Sharma and Jonny Bairstow got two centuries each, in consecutive matches. When they played against each other, in the marquee England v India clash at Edgbaston on June 30, Bairstow’s 111 helped England to 337 and Sharma’s 104 kept India in the hunt before they capitulated towards the end. 

Then, in the games where both their teams qualified for the semi finals, the openers put up the show once again, as Bairstow’s 106 helped England cross 300 yet again and set-up a win over New Zealand, and Sharma got 104, his fourth century in the tournament, to help India beat Bangladesh and qualify for the final four.

Biggest duds – MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav

Chasing 338 against England, India found themselves four down by the 40th over with more than 100 runs to get, which soon became 71 off 31 with five wickets in hand. Dhoni and Jadhav, clearly perturbed by the asking rate climbing with every ball, seemed to choose to play out the rest of the overs, dealing in singles and doubles and even playing out dot balls. India fell 31 runs short despite having five wickets in hand.

The approach got criticised by fans and experts alike for the lack of intent shown by batsmen even as Sanjay Bangar, India Assistant Coach, jumped to Dhoni’s defence saying England bowlers mixed up their pace and used the variations to their best advantage at the death. He also said maintaining the net run rate was on the batsmen’s minds when a win seemed improbable.

Standout moment – Nicholas Pooran’s fighting effort against Sri Lanka

West Indies were asked to chase 339 against Sri Lanka, but they lost wickets upfront and were reduced to 84/4 which later became 199/6 when captain Jason Holder was dismissed. But Pooran held the innings together and displayed his wide array of strokes, especially against left-arm pacer Isuru Udana, and registered his maiden ODI ton.

He was helped by Fabian Allen, the all-rounder who got 51 off 32, and together the batsmen added 83 runs for the seventh wicket to keep West Indies in the game. Allen was dismissed but Pooran continued to take his team close to the target before Angelo Mathews, bowling his first ball in ODI cricket since 2017, got Pooran caught behind for 118 off his very first ball and ended the hopes of the Caribbeans.

Room for improvement – New Zealand middle order

New Zealand are almost guaranteed a semifinal spot at this stage but to further their dream of winning their first World Cup they will have to take a close look at the failures of their middle order. They had been reliant on their two most experienced batsmen Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor in their first few games but over the past two clashes when the top order has failed, the middle order batsmen have crumbled under pressure.

Against Australia, chasing modest target of 245 at Lord’s, the middle order quartet of Tom Latham, Colin de Grandhomme, Jimmy Neesham and Mitchell Santner accumulated only 35 runs after Williamson and Taylor were dismissed for 40 and 30. Then against England, when asked to score 306, Neesham, de Grandhomme and Santner could only score 34. The middle order needs to perform under pressure if New Zealand are to chase well against top teams in the knockouts.

Best quote

“We couldn’t fulfill our dream that we had for this mega event” – Shakib Al Hasan, one of the top performers in the World Cup, is disappointed after Bangladesh crashed out.