CWC 2019 Flashback: Kohli and Shami star in record-breaking victory
On this day last year, India stormed to their fifth successive win of the 2019 World Cup by thumping West Indies at the Old Trafford, Manchester. The unbeaten Indian unit delivered a clinical performance and wiped out West Indian hopes of reaching the semi-finals. The 125-run win featured plenty of heroes, but two most prominent were Captain Virat Kohli and pace bowler Mohammed Shami. The duo rewrote record books with their performances.
Kohli took a break from centuries, scored his fourth consecutive fifty
World’s number one ODI batsman did not score a hundred in the competition but his bat kept talking. Scoring 72 in the first innings, Kohli celebrated his fourth consecutive half-century in the World Cup. He became the third Indian batsman to achieve this feat after Sachin Tendulkar (2003) and Navjot Singh Sidhu (1996).
Kohli also clinched the record of being the fastest batsman to score 20,000 runs in international cricket. He scored these runs in 417 innings ( Test, ODI and T20I combined). The previous record was held by the legendary pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara who reached there in 453 knocks.
Mohammed Shami amongst the honours
Coming in the team as Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s replacement, Shami delivered a top spell. Against West Indies, he took 4/16 thus registering the best bowling figures by an Indian bowler against West Indies in a World Cup match. The medium-pacer also became the 2nd Indian bowler to take back to back four-wicket hauls in the global tournament after Umesh Yadav (2015).
Jason Holder and dots
West Indian pace bowlers used the track well in the first innings. In his spell of 10-2-33-2, Holder sent down as many as 46 dot balls. This was the highest for a bowler in the 2019 World Cup. Earlier, James Neesham of New Zealand had bowled 45 dot balls in his spell of 5/31 versus Afghanistan.
The mega margin
The losing margin of 125 runs was the third-highest for West Indies in the World Cup. Their biggest defeat by the margin of runs was recorded in 2015 where South Africa thrashed them for a 257-run loss. West Indies had also lost to New Zealand by 143 runs.
