The dust continues to settle on the 2019 ICC World Cup after a six-week long tournament culminated with the most extraordinary final at Lord’s.
Hosts England capturing their maiden World Cup trophy in the most of dramatic of fashion was the perfect finale to an eventful and entertaining tournament that delivered on many fronts.
There were several players who rose to the occasion in England over the course of the World Cup while quite a few had disastrous campaigns to forget.
Here, we look at the five biggest hits and misses of the 2019 World Cup.
HITS
Kane Williamson
The Kiwi skipper won the hearts of cricket fans around the world with his immense grace and poise despite what was an extremely bitter pill to swallow for his side following their loss at Lord’s. His class was not just limited to gentlemanly behavior with Williamson also walking away with the player of the tournament award.
The right-hander scored almost 30 per cent of New Zealand’s total runs at an average of over 82 in their dream run to a second successive World Cup final. Williamson’s unbeaten ton to guide his side to win in a tough run chase against South Africa was arguably one of the best innings of the tournament.
The Kiwi skipper was all class.
Shakib Al Hasan
Nobody would have predicted that the Bangladesh man would end up as the third highest run-scorer in the tournament before the World Cup but the No1 ranked all-rounder managed to defy all odds and expectations with a stellar campaign.
Shakib became the first player in history to claim at least 10 wickets while also scoring 600 runs in the same World Cup in a record-breaking campaign. That 41 was the lowest score by the southpaw in eight innings tells you all you need to know about his magnificent tournament.
Ben Stokes
While Joe Root and Jofra Archer were the respective leading run-scorers and wicket-takers in England’s title winning campaign, it was Ben Stokes who was the heart and soul of the team.
The controversial all-rounder is now a national hero for England after his sensational display in the Lord’s final where he dug the team out from the jaws of defeat. From digging his team out of holes to pulling off some stunning catches in the outfield, Stokes was in the thick of things for England throughout the tournament.
He scored 465 runs overall and finished ahead of the likes of Virat Kohli and Jason Roy in the scoring charts while also picking up seven wickets with the ball.
Rohit Sharma
While he will remain haunted by his semi-final failure for some time to come, there is no denying that Rohit Sharma was the best batsman on display in the tournament.
The India deputy skipper became the first batsman in history to slam five centuries in a single World Cup and he fell just short of overhauling Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 673 runs scored in 2003.
With Kohli not registering a single ton and Shikhar Dhawan exiting the tournament through injury, it was Rohit who led India’s charge with the bat to the semi-final.
Rohit created a new World Cup record.
Lockie Ferguson
The Kiwi pacer was one of the biggest revelations of the tournament with a fine campaign that saw him pick up 21 wickets in total at an average of just 19.47.
He finished behind only Mitchell Starc in the wicket-taking charts and was up there among the quickest bowlers in the tournament when it came to raw pace.
Ferguson’s biggest strength was his incredible consistency with the Blackcaps pacer not going wicketless in any of his nine outings in the tournament. It was some turnaround from him after his previous 86 ODI appearances before the World Cup had yielded only 59 wickets at an average of more than 43.
MISSES
Rashid Khan
Six wickets in nine games was an extremely poor return for a leg-spinner of the calibre of Rashid Khan who will wish to quickly forget the tournament.
The Afghanistan star was made to look ordinary on several occasions and had a nightmare of an outing against England where he went for 110 runs in nine overs. The No1 ranked T20I bowler now hold the infamous record of the worst figures by any bowler in World Cup history and his stellar reputation has taken an almighty beating.
Martin Guptill
The New Zealand opener’s stunning direct hit to run out MS Dhoni in the semi-final, and his general superb fielding, will remain his only positive abiding memories of a campaign where he simply failed to turn up with the bat.
Guptill has always been one of the more reliable performers for the Blackcaps in limited-overs cricket but his World Cup showings were a far cry from previous displays from a man who has scored an ODI double-ton.
The right-hander registered an unbeaten 73 against Sri Lanka in the campaign opener but was able to muster just 113 runs in his next nine innings with the bat.
Nothing went right for Guptill with the bat.
Glenn Maxwell
Plenty was expected from the Australian maverick in the World Cup after some promising displays earlier this year but it didn’t really happen for Maxwell in England.
The all-rounder had brief flashes of brilliance but they were too few and far between for Australia’s liking. He scored a fine, unbeaten 46 against Sri Lanka but his overall tally in the tournament stood at just 177 runs after 10 innings.
The explosive cameos down the order in the crux stages simply did not arrive.
Shoaib Malik
It was not the swansong from ODI cricket that Shoaib Malik would have envisioned with the veteran bowing out from the format with barely a whimper.
The 37-year-old had previously averaged around 12 with the bat in ODIs on English soil and that statistic reflected his struggles to follow in the World Cup.
Malik was able to score just three runs in eight innings while bagging two ducks and he was deservedly axed from the Pakistan playing XI in the latter stages.
A disappointing end to Malik’s 20-year ODI career.
Andre Russell
The hype around the Windies all-rounder before the start of the World Cup was immense after his MVP showing for Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL. Russell had plundered sixes for fun the in the T20 competition and the same was expected in England but it turned out to be a disappointing campaign with the bat in the end.
Although he was quite decent with the ball in hand, Russell was guilty of some shoddy shot-making with the bat and could only register a high-score of 21 runs in four innings. His World Cup campaign ended in misery with the all-rounder leaving the tournament midway through due to his knee struggles.
