KARACHI: The 2015 World Cup has been overwhelmingly dominated by batsmen — a point testified by record 35 individual centuries scored in the 41 matches — with one game, involving Australia and Bangladesh in Brisbane, abandoned without a ball being delivered — staged in the league phase of the competition.

With the new rules, as enforced by the ICC since Oct 1 last year (2014), in place the bowlers have found it increasingly difficult to curb the flow of runs. With seven knockout round matches still to come, the number of centuries in the 11th edition of the mega event will definitely swell up by a few more.

Apart from debutants Afghanistan, this World Cup has seen at least one century from each of the remaining 13 participating teams. Pakistan looked like finishing the league phase of the tournament with an individual hundred until Sarfraz Ahmed made history at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday — in the last of the league-round fixtures — by becoming the first Pakistan wicket-keeper to reach three figures in a World Cup match.

Sarfraz’s unbeaten 101 against Ireland was Pakistan’s first World Cup century since Imran Nazir hit 160 — incidentally the highest score by any Pakistani batsman at the mega event — against Zimbabwe at Kingston in 2007.

Of the 35 three-figure knocks, Sri Lanka were way ahead of the pack with eight of them — with the redoubtable Kumar Sang­a­kkara striking a world-record four on the trot — followed by South Africa (five), India (four), West Indies and Australia (th­r­ee apiece) with two each scored by Eng­land, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Ireland.

Apart from Pakistan, New Zealand scored their only century in their final Pool ‘A’ game against Bangladesh at Hamilton last Friday. The UAE and Scotland also registered an individual hundred each while Samiullah Shenwari played the biggest innings for Afghanistan with that 96 against Scotland at the University Oval in Dunedin almost three weeks ago.

Ratio-wise, the ongoing tournament has thus far seen a batsman reaching three figures every 0.85 match — which is the best for any World Cup. In the inaugural event in 1975, a total of six centuries were scored in 15 matches hosted by England with a ratio of 0.40 per game.

When England were the hosts in 1979, only two hundreds — both by the West Indies — were registered in 14 fixtures with one match washed out by Manchester rains with ratio of a century falling to a dismal 0.14.

The 1983 tournament in England was expanded to 27 matches — double round-robin at the league stage with each team playing twice against the same opponents in their respective group — in which eight centuries were recorded with a ratio of almost 0.30 (0.0296).

The number of tons showed some improvement when India and Pakistan co-hosted the 1987 World Cup. In 27 games 11 hundreds were made with a ratio of nearly 0.41 (0.407).

And when the World Cup was last staged in Australia and New Zealand in 1992, the event saw 39 matches, with 36 of them played on single league basis with all teams playing others once each, with only eight centuries made and century/match ratio dipping sharply to 0.20.

When the sub-continent had the chance to host the World Cup in 1996 with India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka playing the good hosts, 16 centuries were compiled at a ratio of 0.44 in 36 matches which actually took place since out of 38 scheduled fixtures two in Colombo were forfeited by Australia and the West Indies who both cited security concerns.

At the 1999 World Cup in England, just 11 centuries were struck in 42 matches with a ratio of 0.26. The figures showed an upward trend when South Africa, Zimba­bwe and Kenya were the hosts in 2003. Then in 52 matches, 21 hundreds were hit with a century per match ratio of 0.40.

In the much-maligned 2007 World Cup in the West Indies, 20 triple-figure knocks were made in 51 fixtures with a ratio of 0.39, while in the 2011 edition — jointly hosted by India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the figures showed an upward trend as 24 centuries were put on the board at a ratio of 0.57.

From Pakistan’s perspective, they have scored only 14 centuries in 70 World Cup matches. Former captains Ramiz Raja and Saeed Anwar head the list with three apiece with another ex-skipper Aamir Sohail reaching three figures twice at the mega event. Former skippers Imran Khan, Zaheer Abbas and Javed Miandad hit one each as did Imran Nazir and Sarfraz.

So far, a total of 162 World Cup centuries have been scored but at the business end of the 10 previous editions, just 15 were hit in the knockout rounds with six of them coming in finals — 102 by Clive Lloyd in 1975 (Lord’s), 138 not out by Viv Richards in 1979 (Lord’s), 107 not out by Aravinda de Silva in 1996 (Lahore), an undefeated 140 by Ricky Ponting in 2003 (Johannesburg), 149 by Adam Gilchrist in 2007 (Bridgetown) and an unbeaten 103 in a losing cause by Mahela Jayawardene in 2011 (Mumbai).

Published in Dawn March 17th , 2015

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