Favorite MoS performances in ODI World Cups!

[zen]

ODI WC Man of the Series (MoS) award was introduced in 1992. It is awarded to the player with the most impact in the tournament. Note that the key word is impact (or even game changing performances) and that does not necessarily mean most runs, most wkts, most man of the matches, performance in SF and/or F, and so on. 

 

Below is the list of MoS winners: 

 

• 1992: M Crowe
• 1996: S Jayasuriya
• 1999: L Klusener
• 2003: S Tendulkar
• 2007: G McGrath
• 2011: Y Singh
• 2015: M Starc
• 2019: K Williamson 

 

 

I guess, it may be difficult to pick one, so which are your favorite 3 performances?

 

 

I will go with the 3 in the 90s mainly because I had never seen anything like that before. To summarize:

 

 

1992

 

 

 

• M Crowe had an aura that I had never experienced before. Had heard about Richards of 70s and 80s, but to experience something like this is hard to describe. The batting performances were not only magnetic, but also his captaincy, which was refreshing and motivating. 
• That iconic headband that conveyed that the Kiwis had a strong guardian 
• Scored 450+ runs at an average of around 115 and a SR of 90+. Two other batsmen also scored 400+ runs in the tournament but at a SR in the 60s. 
• The tournament was played against strong teams w/ good attacks so extra points for the performances 

 

 

 

1996

 

 

 

• These hard hitting performances changed the game forever as the Powerplay would not be the same again. Jayasuriya went at an unheard SR of 130+, picked up a bunch of wickets, and fielded safely. 
• With Aus and WI forfeiting their group games vs. SL, its toughest group game was against India. This game would show to the world how good SL really was as up to that point, it had only beaten Zim. 
• India with Tendulkar's 137 piled up a total of 270 odd that would be considered formidable. SL walked in and knocked up 40 odd runs in the first 3 overs. In the blink of an eye, the game was over for the Indian fans. At that time, it was not foreseeable that a team chasing 270 would be in a position to close the game after just 3 overs! The Indian team probably just gave up after the assault. Such was the impact of Jayasuriya's inning that people even forgot that a 137 was scored just a while back. The match also scarred India as when it met SL in the SF, it decided to field first on a crumbling wicket. Jayasurya's reputation of making chasing a cakewalk, also hit a 80 off 40 vs. Eng in QF chasing 230 odd, had won its team the SF even before he set his foot on the field! 

 

 

 

1999

 

 

 

• Like Crowe and Jayasuriya, Klusener had an aura as well. As long as he was at the crease (or yet to bat), SA could not lose. Klusener scored at a SR of 120+ and averaged 140 odd, while picking up 17 wickets. 
• The defiant man could have taken SA to the final too if not for the runout due to some dumb cricket at the other end. Or since Klusener was in such a terrific form maybe he could have waited for one more ball to finish the game. Maybe Klusener could have been promoted up the order. Or was it that the luck was smiling on Aus. After the loss, Klusener captured the spirit of the game and said to have remarked - "So what SA lost, no-one died."

 

 

[sourab10forever]

Hard to go past yuvi... personal bias attached.

[bowl_out]

Very tough to pick - Jayasuriya, Klusener, Starc, Tendulkar in no particular order

[Straight Drive]

The ones I watched

 

1983 WC final

2011 WC final

2018 U19 WC

 

 

 

 

[nevada]

2 hours ago, sourab10forever said:

Hard to go past yuvi... personal bias attached.

Same here! Yuvi, the one and only.

[rkt.india]

96 probably the worst MOS decision ever.

[rkt.india]

My favourites are Klusener and Mitch Starc.

Edited April 16, 2020 by rkt.india

[Sooda]

2 hours ago, rkt.india said:

96 probably the worst MOS decision ever.

Why, who should it have gone to?

[rkt.india]

1 minute ago, Sooda said:

Why, who should it have gone to?

Aravinda who had 4 MOTMs in the tourney. How some having 4 MOTMs didn't get MOS is flabbergasting.

[zen]

3 hours ago, rkt.india said:

Aravinda who had 4 MOTMs in the tourney. How some having 4 MOTMs didn't get MOS is flabbergasting.

There is nothing flabbergasting about it. A World Cup can have teams such as Canada, UAE, Namibia, Bermuda, UAE, etc., playing so  if the award is decided by a panel, it is unlikely to give too much weightage to performances against such teams (not favorites) unless your team messed up big time and you played out of your skin to turn a likely defeat into victory. Moreover, MoM can be decided by a person (can be the match referee) or a group (commentators for the game for e.g.) that evaluate a particular match on the day, while the Man of the Series is decided by a panel (usually selected commentators who followed most of the games) that evaluates all matches including the opposition played against. 
 

The 1996 World Cup had teams like Kenya, along with Zim, playing. A couple of Arvinda’s MoM were in those games. Mark Waugh had 3 MoM as well iirc - scored 3 100s.  For SL, Jayasuriya performed vs. 3 major teams - Ind (Only strong group game for SL), Eng (QF) and Ind (3 wkts in SF including Tendulkar’s that triggered a collapse), while Aravinda in 2 - Ind (SF) and Aus (F).
 

Moreover, Jayasuriya gave SL flying starts, SR of 130+ in the tournament, to make it easy for other batsmen too. Overall, his AR performances were more memorable, not to says that others were not but the 1996 tournament was more about him esp. how he batted in PP. 

 

People still talk about Jayasuriya’s exploits - 

Glenn McGrath rated Jayasuriya among the toughest batsmen he ever bowled to, paying tribute with these words: “It is always a massive compliment to someone to say they changed the game, and his storming innings in the 1996 World Cup changed everyone’s thinking about how to start innings.”

 

Edited April 16, 2020 by zen

[rtmohanlal]

Mine is 'Kapil in 83'. A  24 year old  captain with only  4 years  experience  leading a  lower ranked team and beating the GOAT team in the final to take the cup is stuff of legends.To add to that  his impact  and stats in that tournament was out of the world in every sense.

[zen]

1 hour ago, rtmohanlal said:

Mine is 'Kapil in 83'. A  24 year old  captain with only  4 years  experience  leading a  lower ranked team and beating the GOAT team in the final to take the cup is stuff of legends.To add to that  his impact  and stats in that tournament was out of the world in every sense.

Good but did you not like any of the officially awarded Man of the Series performances?

[maniac]

I would say 83 is probably the worst. I know Amarnath contributed when it mattered in the last leg of the tournament but didn’t he have an overall mediocre one?

 

If I had to pick I would go with Starc. A bowler topping the charts in the day and age of 400 scores and batsmen hitting 200s and with the new rules must be some performance. He topped the charts twice in a row too.

 

For me it is Starc followed by Sachin in 2003. The knock against England and Pakistan alone have become staple of cricket highlight reel for ever.

[zen]

1 minute ago, maniac said:

I would say 83 is probably the worst. I know Amarnath contributed when it mattered in the last leg of the tournament but didn’t he have an overall mediocre one?

The Man of the Series award officially began in 1992. Therefore in 83, there was no such award but only the Man of the Match awards. 

[rtmohanlal]

3 minutes ago, zen said:

Good but did you not like any of the officially awarded Man of the Series performances?

all were brilliant, how can't they be...but to pick from that set is very difficult..still I think Starc in 2015 was the best  among all the choices because he made great impact in the final too .It was his dismissal of M'cullam  for nothing that killed the entire momentum of NZL inns which eventually resulted in AUS winning. All others didn't have that impact in the final

[Nikola]

Why kane was given MOS? did well but so did many other batsman (shakib, rohit, warner). My personal choice would have been stokes ofcourse for playing multiple clutch knocks and picked up few wickets. If not him then starc or shakib.

[Rasgulla]

I thought Starc was unstoppable in 2015, with that being said its was All round performance from Yuvi. Very tough to pick! Yuvi might just have an edge.

 

Problem with Yuvi is he hasn't done much in Finals whether it can be 2003, 2007 or 2011.  Let's not talk about 2014 he wasn't the same person after Cancer. 

Edited April 16, 2020 by Rasgulla