Absolutely worst world cup innings?

[youngindia]

He was utterly selfish. IN another match similarly Shastri and Srikkanth put on 188 runs. After Srikkanth got out at 99 Shastri took so much time to get to his 100 .

historically, our batsmen were known for battles of attrition. think of gavaskar,amarnath,dravid. guys lke brijesh patel,yashpal sharma and sandeep patel were here and there but they never lasted.srikkanth came but he was again low on average. the better attacking players and strikers of the ball came from 2000 onwards.

[vvvslaxman]

ravi shastri was sort of matchwinner in the 85-87 period. the assault on akram and co in the one dayer at hyderabad(the only one we won inthe series) by shastri and kapil was one of the best death over hitting i saw at that time. he had his limitations but for that time, he had some use ful hitting ability. gradually he started declining with ambitions of opening in tests. he won a one dayer vs SA in SA 1992 with a cameo one last time but his few last years, his popularity totally deteriorated.

Shastri's best impact innings i can think of is his innings inTIE test where he made 48 in 40 balls http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63438.html

[akshayxyz]

Shastri has played at least 3 gems in World Cups all of which led to crucial losses in matches we would have won otherwise : http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/65116.html http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/65119.html http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/65129.html vvs, the one run loss you are talking about is the last one in my list above against Australia - a pitiful 25 off 67 deliveries.

Watching Shastri bat, esp in ODIs used to be nightmare.

[shoki]

sunny inning

[vvvslaxman]

historically, our batsmen were known for battles of attrition. think of gavaskar,amarnath,dravid. guys lke brijesh patel,yashpal sharma and sandeep patel were here and there but they never lasted.srikkanth came but he was again low on average. the better attacking players and strikers of the ball came from 2000 onwards.

Sandip Patil was a gun player those days. Problem with Ravi was he never really got going when he needed to. It is one thing you play slowly when it is not necessary to accelerate. But Shastri never played according to team interest. In Tests it was okay. But in ODIs..he played some real selfish innings.

[youngindia]

Shastri's best impact innings i can think of is his innings inTIE test where he made 48 in 40 balls http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/63438.html

i was there at the chepauk.The Last day was the most memorable day of entertaining test cricket i have watched. 347 was the last day and border didn't think it was within our reach.(those days he was justified and in india not even 250+ total have been chased at that time) Th consolidation phase a bit slow with gavaskar and amarnath. but with wickets remaining, the assault towards 347 started. the match came to life and it was breathtaking till the end. there was chance of rain as well late in the evening. Maninder spoilt it all and the crowd left cursing him :) . even though the tie was a disappointment, i knew i ahd watched one of the best days cricket. have no forgtten it till this day.

[youngindia]

Shastri never played according to team interest. In Tests it was okay. But in ODIs..he played some real selfish innings.

he was ok for those days. he finished many matches for us against lesser sides. but while opening the batting, he was a pain. he shud be no 7. and he was a slow runner and it worsened during his last few years with knee problems. hence he could not rotate strike properly(even his peak was slow and now it became worse)

[vvvslaxman]

I was also disappointed at Maninder. But later.. i thanked it was a tie. Australia didn't really deserve to lose that Test. They made a sporting declaration in both innings. Also Tie test is more memorable than a winning Test coz of rarity.

[Bumper]

I saw the match live at Mohali. I have also had the privilege of witnessing many famous Pakistani batting collapses before. It is because of Misbah's steady batting in the middle order Pakistan has managed some decent performances in the last year. Slating Misbah based on his performance in the semis, is a touch unfair. Agreed that he is limited (he can only bat in the first or fourth gear), but to apportion all the blame on him is simply myopic (which is typical of Pak fans). Pakistani fans and media always look for a scape goat after a loss and who better to blame than Misbah who was the only batsman to have not failed ? Lets check some facts, shall we ? Here are the runs scored by their top 7 batsmen along with their SR

	
Kamran Akmal† 	19 @ 90.47
Mohammad Hafeez 43 @ 72.88
Asad Shafiq 	30 @ 76.92
Younis Khan 	13 @ 40.62
Misbah-ul-Haq 	56 @ 73.68
Umar Akmal 	29 @ 120.83
Abdul Razzaq 	3  @ 33.33
Shahid Afridi* 	19 @ 111.76

As you can see, overall Misbah's SR does not look that bad relative to other batsmen. Only Younis Khan batted badly with no intent. If you are a Pakistani middle order batsman who has seen your side crumble like a cookie repeatedly, you are not going to take a chance playing the big shots in a world cup semis. Thats what Misbah thought. He could have at best rotated the strike better, but he is not that type of player. Razzaq's failure really hurt them. He came in & left without any contribution. He is usually dangerous in these circumstances and is more reliable than Afridi. Had he clicked, things would have been different. Pakistan did not really have any momentum once Umar Akmal left. That said, they really missed Shoaib Malik & Mohd Yousuf. These two can rotate the strike as well as build an innings and Malik has a fantastic record against India. I have lost count of the no. of times he has hurt us - the most recent being the champions trophy game. So not picking these two in a world cup was a huge mistake.

[vvvslaxman]

Pakistan always has some rigid and risky batting strategy. There is a plan A. That's it. No plan B or anything.

[Raghav_12]

i watched all those Ravi shastri's pathetic innings. Anyone who watched is not going to have a different opinon. Even in 1985.. he played very slowly in benson and hedges to get the Audi car. Srikkanth played unselfishly as he was also a hot contender.

Shastri had very limited talent in terms of cricketing ablties. But he made more than enough of whatever talent he had. However I can't comment on his bowling skills as by the time I started watching cricket, he was in team more or less for his batting skills and occassional bowler. As a batsman he was very defensive and would hardly go for big shots. I always wondered if he was the same batsman who had hit six sixes in a over in FC match. But somehow, had managed to score some good centuries outside India, which was relatively rather around 1990. I guess Ravi Shastri as a commentator has outperformed Shastri as a player.

[singhprakash72]

Shastri had very limited talent in terms of cricketing ablties. But he made more than enough of whatever talent he had. However I can't comment on his bowling skills as by the time I started watching cricket, he was in team more or less for his batting skills and occassional bowler. As a batsman he was very defensive and would hardly go for big shots. I always wondered if he was the same batsman who had hit six sixes in a over in FC match. But somehow, had managed to score some good centuries outside India, which was relatively rather around 1990. I guess Ravi Shastri as a commentator has outperformed Shastri as a player.

I think Shastri was an average cricketer who worked hard in his initial years but I would say last 5-6 years his game was colossal waste....But even though I loved to hate him in those years, he would have made an excellent captain well ahead of Azhar who was totally lost in his initial years. Shastri got just one chance as captain in test against WI and he did commendable job...but at that time India wanted to have least controversial player as captain hence Azhar !!!

[Karan114]

Shastri's career was before my time so it is interesting to hear about his selfish innings which cost ODI wins - I had always heard of him as a dogged player who got the most out of his talents (similar to what Raghav_12 says). How come his career ended when he was just 30?

[vpg0002]

i think u are forgetting sunil gavaskar's 36 not out from 174 balls vs england http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/current/match/65035.html

Apparently there was a reason why Gavaskar did this. The Englishmen after scoring 335 runs placed more than 5 player at the boundary ropes so as to ensure a win and that miffed Sunny that he played a test innings as a mark of protest for what Sunny thought of as unsporting gesture by the English counter parts.

[ravishingravi]

^kidding right ?

[Raghav_12]

Shastri's career was before my time so it is interesting to hear about his selfish innings which cost ODI wins - I had always heard of him as a dogged player who got the most out of his talents (similar to what Raghav_12 says). How come his career ended when he was just 30?

His form had deserted him. In India's tour to SA in 92, he failed miserably with bat and he had already stopped bowling some time back. Adding to that he had become very unpopular with teammates , andalso among fans. IIRC he was dropped from team for England's tour to India at 1993. He had no option left but retiring.

[Prakat]

^^ Think there's something in that. Gavaskar played for his wicket like Afridi plays for his strike rate.

[nsaviguru]

This is a very interesting thread, fortunately most of the innings happened before I was born, very good history lesson and I am glad I missed these painful acts by our previous generation. LOL at Sunny protesting. More like on a mission to make spectators protest than make a point to the English.