5 of the greatest innings played in the Cricket World Cup
The ICC Cricket World Cup is the biggest tournament in cricket, and every cricket playing nation dreams of winning the coveted trophy. It is the ultimate prize in limited overs cricket, and every player wants to perform well at the biggest stage.
Limited overs cricket is a batsman’s game, and quite naturally, most of the great batsmen have good records in World Cup cricket. Bowlers are mostly in a defensive mode while playing in a 50 over match, and therefore, the batsmen tend to dominate this version of the game.
Some of them have played memorable knocks in World Cups over the decades. We would take a look at the 5 of greatest knocks played in the World Cups:
#5. Sourav Ganguly (183 vs Sri Lanka, 1999 World Cup)
Sourav Ganguly had just missed playing in the 1996 World Cup held in the subcontinent. He made amends in the next edition of the tournament, which was played in England. India were up against the defending champions Sri Lanka at Taunton, the home ground of county side Somerset.
India won the toss and batted first on a gloomy, overcast day. India lost Sadagoppan Ramesh cheaply and then Ganguly and Rahul Dravid joined hands. They put the Lankan attack comprising of Muttiah Muralidharan and Chaminda Vaas to the sword and added 318 runs in the 2nd wicket partnership.
Ganguly was especially harsh on the Lankan spinners and hit 7 shots over the boundaries in his knock. He also hit 17 fours and made the Lankan attack look like that of a club side. The small ground helped his cause, but no credit should be taken away from the wonderful effort by the southpaw.
The Lankans were bowled out for 216 while chasing India’s mammoth total of 373. Ganguly’s cuts, pulls and drives had won India the match in the first 50 overs itself, as Sri Lanka were never supposed to recover from that mauling. Ganguly also beat Kapil Dev’s record of 175 runs to score the highest number of runs by an Indian in one-day cricket.