Fakhar the hero, Rohit the repeater

#CWC2019

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Matthew Wade
100 not out v Pakistan
first ODI, Brisbane
Wade’s even hundred (made at a strike rate of 100) sent Australia one up in the limited-overs leg of the series after they had whitewashed Pakistan in the Tests. The home side were two down for 13, and then 78 for 5 when Wade arrived at the crease, but he proceeded to shepherd the tail as he went about making his highest score on a pitch that was trickier than it appeared. He added 42 with Pat Cummins, 23 with Mitchell Starc, and 33 with debutant Billy Stanlake. In the end, Australia were comfortable winners, by 92 runs.

Kedar Jadhav
120 v England
first ODI, Pune
England did everything right for the first 60-odd overs of the game, piling up 350 and then reducing India to 63 for 4. Enter Virat Kohli and Jadhav, who put on a stand of 200, India’s second highest in ODIs for the fifth wicket. Jadhav got to his 120 in 76 balls, hitting 12 fours and four sixes, outscoring his partner during their stand, before he was dismissed, struggling with cramp. India wrapped things up easily, with 11 deliveries and three wickets to spare.

Marcus Stoinis
146 not out v New Zealand
first ODI, Auckland
Stoinis’ towering 146 in a chase of 287 was made all the more so by the fact that none of his team-mates made over 36. It all looked easy for New Zealand when they reduced an Australia side lacking Steven Smith, David Warner and Matthew Wade to 67 for 6, but Stoinis scrapped and attacked, lashing 11 sixes in a breathtaking solo that kept his team in the game even after they had slipped to nine wickets down, 61 short of the target. They only stopped him by getting rid of all his partners: last man Josh Hazlewood was run out superbly by a direct hit by Kane Williamson.

Martin Guptill
180 not out v South Africa
fourth ODI, Hamilton
Guptill, coming back into the side after a month away, showed here why he is one of the premier openers in one-day cricket, turning a chase of 280 into a stroll. He hit 11 sixes, of which four went out of the ground, and made 114 in a partnership of 180 with Ross Taylor. His fifty came off 38 balls and his century off another 44. New Zealand got to the mark with 30 deliveries to spare, keeping the series alive going into the fifth match. The innings put Guptill at No. 3 on the list of all-time highest ODI scores for New Zealand. The top two? Also by M Guptill.

Shakib Al Hasan
114 v New Zealand
Champions Trophy, Cardiff
Shakib spearheaded Bangladesh’s unlikely resurgence after they had been hacked down to 33 for 4 in a chase of 266 at the venue where a dozen years earlier they had memorably upset Australia. In a must-win game for both teams, New Zealand did not do much wrong until Shakib came together with Mahmudullah and both proceeded to make centuries; Shakib’s came at nearly a run a ball and featured 11 fours, and he got to the mark with a six off Adam Milne. The partnership of 224 set a new record for Bangladesh, and they got home with room to spare, in the 48th over.

Ben Stokes
102 not out v Australia
Champions Trophy, Birmingham
Australia had picked up three early wickets when Stokes arrived at the crease and proceeded to put on a partnership of 159 with Eoin Morgan. England needed 5.54 an over from the outset to put Australia out of the tournament; Stokes and Morgan went at 6.01 in the 26 overs they batted together. Stokes, who had only once before made a 50-plus score in a chase, took his time settling in and then cut loose, getting 64 of his runs in boundaries; eight of those fours came off Pat Cummins, whose pace Stokes used deftly to his advantage. He later said this hundred was his best innings in a chase, and attributed his success to his IPL experience of playing in front of large crowds.

Fakhar Zaman
114 v India
Champions Trophy final, The Oval
Zaman’s landmark innings, in only his fourth ODI, took Pakistan to their first ICC 50-overs title in 25 years, and delivered his side the largest margin of victory ever in an ICC ODI tournament final. He started cautiously, and was let off when he edged to the keeper off a no-ball, but he then settled into an attacking groove and didn’t let up. In the 26th over, he lashed Ravindra Jadeja for a six and two fours; in the 28th, he gave R Ashwin similar treatment, taking 13 runs off him. It wasn’t a chanceless innings, with more than its share of edges, miscues, and clumsy running between the wickets, but for audacity and big-stage nous, it was up there.

Hamilton Masakadza
73 v Sri Lanka
fifth ODI, Hambantota
Masakadza’s innings made possible one of Zimbabwe’s most significant victories in nearly a generation: it was only their third bilateral series away win against a Test nation, and the first time they had won a five-match ODI series away. He had had a fine series, with a hundred in the third match, and here he brought his A game to the chase of 204, starting off steadily (in contrast to his partner Solomon Mire, who came out guns blazing) and continuing in that vein, dropping anchor and judging the boundary balls with care. It took a superb catch by Nuwan Kulasekara to finally dismiss Masakadza as he tried to loft one over mid-off.

Tom Latham
103 not out v India
first ODI, Mumbai
Down in the middle order so New Zealand could open with hitter Colin Munro, Latham made merry against the spinners, sweeping and reverse-sweeping in a partnership of 200 with Ross Taylor. Latham, who had scored 438 runs in India as an opener in the ODI and Test series in 2016, had the perfect plan for the increased intake of spin as a middle-order batsman: he didn’t do anything extravagant, stayed back or came forward as required, and used the sweep with and against the turn. Thirty of his runs came behind square on leg, 26 of those off the sweep. Taylor later revealed that he had advised Latham to use the reverse sweep, which Latham said he had never employed in a game before and had practised going into this match. New Zealand finished with a comfortable win – their only one in the ODI series.

Rohit Sharma
208 not out v Sri Lanka
second ODI, Mohali
Rohit’s third double-hundred set the seal on his ability to accelerate like no one else in a 50-over innings. As with his previous doubles, he started almost ponderously, taking 37 balls to get to 20, bringing up his fifty off 65, and his hundred with only ten overs left in the innings. His second hundred, though, came off 36 balls (and his overall strike rate after he gets to 100 is over 188). Sri Lanka tried everything – taking pace off the ball, bowling short, bowling yorkers both wide and traditional, and wide full-tosses – and they all met the same fate. “Once you cross the three-figure mark, batting only gets easier,” Rohit said after the innings. “Unless you make a mistake, you will not get out.” The world’s batsmen will do well to take note. For now, Rohit seems to have trademarked the art of the 200.