Expensive Bowling Spells in ODI World Cup India has at times lost crucial matches in the ODI World Cup. One of the main reasons behind these losses has been their bowling. Hardly ever has India lost a game mainly because of their batting barring maybe the 2019 World Cup semifinal. There have been instances of senior Indian bowlers conceding more runs in a crunch game. It has resulted in India losing control over the proceedings.
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Expensive Bowling Spells in ODI World Cup
In a tournament like the World Cup, every game is crucial. If a bowler concedes a very big advantage it can potentially turn the team’s fortunes in this tournament.
We look at Indian bowlers who bowled expensive spells in the ODI World Cup:
#4 Umesh Yadav – 8.0
It has been the biggest drawback of his cricketing career. Umesh Yadav is someone who is notorious to leak runs across formats. He is a wicket-taker and this fact is not lost on anyone but at times his expensive bowling style has cost the side. One such occasion was the 2015 ODI World Cup semifinal against Australia. Yadav picked up 4 Australian wickets but he ended up conceding 72 runs in just 9 overs. His economy rate of 8 in the game forced the captain to not bowl out his full quota.
#3 Javagal Srinath – 8.7
He was forced to come out of retirement to play in the 2003 ODI World Cup. Javagal Srinath played a big part in India’s run to the finals. He was part of the 3-man seam attack comprising Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, and himself. Srinath though proved to be quite expensive in the World Cup final. He went for 87 runs in his 10-over spell leaking runs at 8.7 per over. The veteran seamer failed to pick a single wicket and Australia batted India out of the competition.
#2 Yuzvendra Chahal – 8.8
It was this game that had a cascading effect on Indian cricket. The pair of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav went from strength to strength in the period between 2017-19. They were India’s biggest trump card in the middle overs with both of them hunting for wickets. But in a round-robin game against England, the wheels came off in stunning fashion. England’s openers went after the Indian bowling. The assault carried on right through.
Kuldeep Yadav conceded 72 runs while Chahal got the bigger hammering. He was smashed for 88 runs in his 10-over spell wherein his economy rate was 8.8. India’s team combination changed post that game and they hardly ever fielded the combination of Chahal-Kuldeep together.
#1 Zaheer Khan – 9.57
India couldn’t have asked for a more forgeable bowling day than the World Cup final of 2003. Right until the finals, Indian seamers were on top of their game with each of Zaheer Khan, Srinath, and Nehra winning games all on their own. Khan was the new-ball operator who made the ball talk. But he totally came apart in the finals.
Khan’s disastrous first over that went for 15 runs set the tone for the game. India could never quite recover from that shocker. Khan didn’t even complete his quota of overs. He bowled just 7 overs but gave away 67 runs at an economy rate of 9.57!
