News Sports Cricket World Cup 2015: Best XI from the group-stage fixtures

World Cup 2015: Best XI from the group-stage fixtures

New Delhi: The biggest cricket extravaganza is done with its group stage fixtures and now its the time for the knock outs. After 42 group games, the business end of the 2015 World Cup is finally


 
5) Brendan Taylor (wk) (Zimbabwe)

Brendan Taylor's international career came to an end with a magnificent century against India, although he was unable to stop MS Dhoni's men winning and eliminating Zimbabwe from the tournament.

You only have to look at his scores at the World Cup—40, 47, 37, 50, 121, 138—to see how much Zimbabwe are going to miss this classy left-handed batsman.

The second highest run-scorer with 433 runs at this World Cup with an average close to 72 and a strike rate of around 107 including 2 centuries and a half century, Taylor was a one-man army for Zimbabwe, battling every game.


 

 

6) Mahmudullah (Bangladesh)

The Bangladesh batsman's career will be defined by Mahmudullah's performances at this World Cup. He showed a brilliant mixture of aggression and poise to hit back-to-back centuries against England and New Zealand, finishing the group stage with a remarkable average of 86. Amazingly he'd played 113 ODIs without making a hundred, then hit two in one week.

He became the first ever Bangladeshi batsmen to score World Cup century.

He would love to repeat the feat against India in the quarterfinals.
 


7) Glenn Maxwell (Australia)

Glenn Maxwell has only had four innings in this World Cup, but he has already found the time to blast 38 boundaries—11 of which cleared the ropes.

He has the best strike-rate of the top 50 run-scorers at this World Cup – a whopping 190, just ahead of McCullum's and has a run tally of 257 averaging 64.25. That is quite good for any finisher, let alone a man of his level of destructive hitting. He also scored Australia's fastest ODI century and the second fastest at World Cups, in 52 balls.
 


8) Mitchell Starc (Australia)

Mitchell Starc has arguably been the bowler of the tournament so far. The leading wicket-taker at this World Cup is also the most feared bowler in the world right now in ODIs. He has 16 wickets from just 5 games, almost winning the match against New Zealand single-handedly.

His economy rate is a brilliant 3.67. He strikes once in every 14 balls, that is less than three overs. His average is the only single digit average amongst top 50 wicket-takers – an unbelievable 8.50.