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Counting down: The Hindu’s list of the greatest on the grandest stage

January 24, 2015 12:44 am | Updated January 25, 2015 01:12 am IST

Viv Richards of West Indies batting on his way to 138 not out against England Cricket World Cup Final Lord's 23 June 1979

Viv Richards of West Indies batting on his way to 138 not out against England Cricket World Cup Final Lord's 23 June 1979

In the lead up to the cricket World Cup, the first stage of The Hindu's Countdown coverage will look back at each of the editions, with big-picture essays, snapshots of defining performances, and excerpts of reports and photographs of the finals curated from The Hindu’s archives.

No. 10: Kapil Dev: India's talisman

His numbers across four World Cups are creditable, but there are others with better. Very few, though, have had Kapil Dev’s impact on a team’s fortunes in an edition.

Had he not made a staggering, unbeaten 175 against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells, with his side reeling on nine for four, or had a lesser athlete set off in pursuit of Viv Richards’s miscue in the final in 1983, Indian — and indeed world — cricket history will have been very different.

Consider that he often broke through with the new ball and seldom leaked runs with the old, and you get a sense of how valuable Kapil was. He was just the sort of leader to defend 183 in the final, too — a man to whom no cause, however dire, was lost.

No. 9: Wasim Akram: Strike Force

Imran Khan had to teach him the yorker, but every other delivery in the swing-and-seam bowler’s handbook — a few others besides — came naturally to Wasim Akram. Add slippery pace, the left-armer’s angle, and a mean streak, and the result was a man who could strike at any time.

The biggest stage inspired his finest moment — he ripped the heart out of England’s batting in the 1992 final, his deliveries to dismiss Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis sinister works of art. No batsman fancied facing him, even at the end of a long WC career.

No. 9: M. Muralitharan: The Magician

A ball-bewitcher, much like the man he shares this spot with, Muttiah Muralitharan did many things at once for his captain. This may be seen through his numbers.

Sides often looked to play him out — why chance it when you struggled to lay bat on ball? So he conceded just 3.88 runs per over. The ploy rarely succeeded, for the wizard off-spinner also took a wicket every 30 balls.

The fallout was the opposition effectively batted 40 overs to Sri Lanka’s 50; and was forced to take more risks in them, not always profitably.

8. IMRAN KHAN:

“In the twilight of my career, finally I’ve managed to win the World Cup,” said Imran Khan, in the most self-absorbed acceptance speech the tournament has seen, but it’s a difficult statement to disagree with.

The 1992 win was as much Imran’s as Pakistan’s. This was a team he had assembled over the years. Wasim Akram was chosen from the nets in he '80s. Inzamam-ul-Haq was written off as a chubby batsman who couldn't make the next level, but Imran saw match-winning potential in him.

Imran was fortunate to have the great Javed Miandad beside him, but there were no doubts about who the general was. Tactically brilliant, Imran also led by stirring example, most notably promoting himself to one-drop in the semifinal and final. As if that weren’t enough, his numbers suggest he is the greatest all-rounder in World Cup history.

7. SHANE WARNE: Big-stage hero

Few cricketers made things happen as often as Shane Warne. The theatre of the big occasion especially suited the leg-spinner: he was irresistible in the semifinals in 1996 and 1999, producing game-turning spells that shattered the West Indies and South Africa respectively.

In the 1999 final, he came on to bowl with Pakistan already in trouble and swiftly ensured there would be no recovery.

Had he been half as good against Sri Lanka in the 1996 final and not been banned from the 2003 edition after taking a slimming pill and failing a drug test, Warne would have been higher on this list.

STATS

2 World Cups, 1 winner’s medal, once finalist, 17 matches

32 wickets, 4/29 best bowling, 19.50 average, 3.83 economy rate, 30.5

strike rate, 4 Four-wicket hauls

ARAVINDA DE SILVA: Immense under pressure

No cricketer has dominated the business end of a World Cup as completely as Aravinda de Silva did in 1996. His counterattacking 66 against India in the semifinal at a packed Eden Gardens, having walked in with Sri Lanka on one for two, was an instant classic.

A wicket and a catch completed the match-winning performance.

Incredibly, he topped that in the final against Australia, bossing all phases of the contest. Three wickets with his tight off-spin and two catches helped keep Australia to 241, a challenging target, given no team had previously won a World Cup batting second.

The nerveless, unbeaten 107 that followed, secured immortality.

STATS

Five World Cups, 1 winner’s medal, 35 matches

1064 runs, 145 highest score, 36.68 average, 86.57 strike rate, 2 100s, 6 50s.

6. STEVE WAUGH: Never say die

Steve Waugh was the ‘Iceman’ during the 1987 triumph. Clinical and innovative under pressure in the slog overs, his mix of slower cutters and blustery bumpers turned matches.

By 1999, Waugh was one of the world’s leading batsmen and captain of a side that was in the process of becoming all-conquering. He lived up to this reputation, making an unbeaten 120 against a strong South African bowling line-up in the Super Sixes, having walked in at 48 for three, with his side chasing 272.

Waugh didn’t quite say, “You’ve just dropped the World Cup, mate,” to Herschelle Gibbs during that innings (it was a more prosaic “I hope you realise that you’ve just lost the game for your team”), but he and Australia did establish a mental dominance that took more than a decade to break.

Waugh’s captaincy was sometimes criticised for lacking ideas when forced to defend, but there’s no doubt he knew how to attack: Adam Gilchrist’s promotion to the top was merely one of many tactical moves made with an eye on domination.

Stat: Four World Cups, two winner’s medals, 33 matches; Batting: 978 runs, 120 n.o. best score, 48.90 average, 81.02 strike rate, 1 100, 6 50s -- Bowling: 27 wickets, 3/36 best bowling, 30.14 average, 38.4 strike rate, 4.70 economy rate

5. SACHIN TENDULKAR: The phenom

Whichever way you section Sachin Tendulkar’s career, its consistency over time astounds the mind. The World Cup is no different.

Statistically there hasn’t been a better batsman: no one has made more runs, hundreds or fifties; and only Viv Richards among those with more than 1000 runs has a higher average (63.31). Tendulkar moreover did it in different conditions, in Australia, England, South Africa and the subcontinent, during a period in which the one-day game changed significantly.

He was at his most memorable as an explosive opener, particularly in the 1996 and 2003 editions, when he topped the batting charts. And yet in 2011, approaching his 38th birthday, he found a way of making runs even quicker: 92 per 100 balls, compared to 89 (2003) and 86 (1996).

What's such a record doing at No. 5? It's very tight at the top, and the men who edged past Tendulkar into the top four have contributed significantly to more than one World Cup triumph and possess better records in finals.

His 22 runs in two World Cup finals aren't something to beat him with, however. He seldom failed to perform in other knockout matches and games against Pakistan (perceived by Indian cricketers as must-win), and so his finals record is more anomaly than evidence of frailty. But it does help separate a very close field.

The triumph in 2011 completed a glittering career and fulfilled a boyhood dream.

STATS: 6 World Cups, 1 winner’s medal, 45 matches; 2278 runs, 152 highest score, 56.95 average, 88.98 strike rate, 6 100s, 15 50s

4. ADAM GILCHRIST

Sometimes all that’s needed for the considerable shift from very good to unconquerable is an ice-cream-induced brain wave. Steve Waugh had one, Adam Gilchrist moved to the top of the order against South Africa in a tri-series final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1998, and the cricket world wasn’t quite the same again.

Gilchrist wasn’t the first one-day opener to look for quick runs, but he did it to such effect that Australia wasn’t merely respected, it was feared. The psychological edge, gained even before the teams took the field, can’t be overstated.

Gilchrist didn’t have a particularly profitable time in 1999. There was a little too much movement in England to consistently hit through the line. But he smashed a 36-ball 54 in the final, ensuring a chase of 133 against Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar didn’t turn tricky.

His 2007 performance had a similar pattern, a series of middling scores followed by the brutal 149 that knocked Sri Lanka out in the final.

Gilchrist also scored 57 in the 2003 final against India, an innings that set up Australia’s 359, making him the only man to register two fifties and a 100 in World Cup title clashes. And he did all of this without compromising the quality of his day job as a safe, athletic wicketkeeper.

STATS: 3 World Cups, 3 winner’s medals, 31 matches; 1085 runs, 149 highest, 36.16 average, 98.01 strike rate, 1 100, 8 50s; 45 catches, 7 stumpings

3. RICKY PONTING

The only batsman other than Sachin Tendulkar to make at least a century in four editions of the World Cup, Ricky Ponting is often pegged as the classical Australian one-drop. And with good reason, for he often continued what his openers had started, keeping the opposition under the pump, or counter-attacked, wresting momentum.

But as he showed in 1999, he could stick around in difficult batting conditions. Ponting’s 354 runs at 39.33 in England rarely gets any play, but the 532 balls he faced in the tournament and the number of times he helped stabilise an innings were vital in a World Cup that didn’t often see the tall totals one does today. He had just one half-century in ten innings, a score of 69 that complemented Steve Waugh’s famous 120 against South Africa, but he stayed around for at least 30 minutes every time.

He announced his arrival in 1996 with a hundred against the West Indies and signed off with one against India in the quarterfinals in 2011. Those were the only two times in five World Cups that he wasn’t part of a victorious Australian side. The 2003 final was his moment, an unbeaten knock of 140 putting the match beyond India.

Ponting’s captaincy (two Cups) and fielding added to his influence on Australia’s hat-trick of titles.

STATS: 5 World Cups, 3 winner’s medals, 46 matches, 1743 runs, 140 n.o. highest, 45.86 average, 79.95 strike rate, 5 100s, 6 50s

2. VIV RICHARDS

It’s commonly held in cricket’s cerebral circles that the greats aren’t confined by the times they play in; they would be just as successful in any era. The assumption inherent is that their games might need to change, but they’ll find a way. Viv Richards though needs no such allowances. His batsmanship from the ‘70s and ‘80s, without the benefit of rocket-launcher bats and smaller boundaries, looks perfectly at home in the Age of Twenty20. But it’s also surer, more complete, despite the apparent unorthodoxy, offering a measure of how exceptional Richards was.

Richards did little of note with the bat in 1975, but his three run-outs in a close-fought final were contest-turning. He dominated the next three editions, finishing with an average of 63.31 and a strike rate of 85.05. So important was he to the world-beating West Indies that his wicket in the 1983 final, in which he began as if he had an early flight home, precipitated defeat. They were 33 quite brilliant runs, but as he said later, also the most painful day of his cricket life. But that was a rare occurrence of his confidence costing him. Richards played one of the great one-day innings in the 1979 final, allowing Collis King centre stage, before proceeding to rip England’s bowling to shreds. His unbeaten 95 against Lillee, Thomson and Hogg in 1983 was, by many accounts, an innings of the highest order. His 181 against Sri Lanka in the 1987 edition was at that time the World Cup’s highest score. (Gary Kirsten topped it with an unbeaten 188 against UAE in 1996).

STATS: 4 World Cups, 2 winner’s medals, 23 matches; 1013 runs, 181 highest, 63.31 average, 85.05 strike rate, 3 100s, 5 50s

1. GLENN MCGRATH

Glenn McGrath’s greatest accomplishment in cricket was living down a nickname as comically belittling as ‘Pigeon’ (to say nothing of the frankly ghastly ‘McPidge’). This he managed with banter of his own -- subjecting batsman after hapless batsman to tight control, just enough movement, and discomfiting bounce with such consistency that all bar the best were reduced to amusing ineptness.

Not that the best got away easy; McGrath named and often shamed them. Sachin Tendulkar in the 2003 final and Jacques Kallis in the 2007 semifinal are two instances of the seamer rendering a side limp by surgically removing its spine.

McGrath was a captain’s dream, for he took wickets and restricted runs with new ball and old. A strike rate of 27.5 and an economy rate of 3.96 confirm as much.

As if that weren’t enough, he was clocked during the 1999 World Cup at nearly 90 mph, something he made a habit of bringing up whenever anyone labelled him medium-fast. Little wonder that opposition batsmen were secretly relieved he was limited to ten overs in one-day cricket.

McGrath was one of the few Australians who emerged without reproach from the 1996 final: although the winning runs were hit off him, he went at just 3.36 an over. Sri Lanka’s success in keeping McGrath wicket-less played a crucial role in its triumph. It was one of only five instances in 39 World Cup matches that he was denied a wicket.

Magnificent in England (1999) and South Africa (2003), he showed he had lost nothing by the time the World Cup travelled to the Caribbean (2007), where he was adjudged the player of the tournament. McGrath was -- even if by a small margin -- Australia’s most effective agent of victory in the most successful run in World Cup history, and for this, he’s The Hindu’s No.1.

STATS: 4 World Cups, 3 winner’s medals, 39 matches

71 wickets, 7/15 best, 18.19 average, 27.5 strike rate, 3.96 economy rate

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