Misbah-ul-Haq and Shahid Afridi (Pakistan)
Two Pakistan greats bid farewell to more than just the World Cup at Adelaide Oval on Friday, with Pakistan's defeat at hands of Australia also signalling the end of Misbah-ul-Haq and Shahid Afridi's illustrious ODI careers.
There was no fairy tale ending for this pair which would have preferred to see out their fifty-over careers by lifting the World Cup in Melbourne, but both produced highlights in a tense knockout match.
Afridi also became the first cricketer to take more than 350 ODI wickets and score more than 8000 runs, a milestone reached against United Arab Emirates in Napier.
He finished with extraordinary ODI career strike rate of 117 and his 398 innings have featured six centuries, 39 fifties, and 395 wickets. He captained Pakistan to a semi-final appearance in 2011 World Cup, also having appeared in the 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011 tournaments.
Meanwhile, Misbah will direct his focus towards the longest form of the game for the remainder of his career. Unlike Afridi, this 40-year-old is known for his steady, unflappable temperament which has translated perfectly into his batting.
Of his two World Cup appearances, Misbah's best result with Pakistan was the 2011 semi-final, while he personally scored 564 runs at 51.27 in 12 innings.
He bowed out of ODIs with an average of 43.40 and remarkably, without a one-day ton. The closest, he came, was an unbeaten 96 against West Indies in mid-2013, one of 42 half-centuries made in the 50-over game.
His top five ODI scores were all unbeaten, two of them in the 90s and he is probably the most unfortunate player for not having been able to score a single century in his career.
Pakistan will feel the loss of this experienced pair, particularly given fellow veteran Younis Khan may also put away his cricket kit in the not-to-distant future.
Daniel Vettori (New Zealand)
With a seven-wicket loss to Australia in the World Cup final, New Zealand allrounder Daniel Vettori called quits to an international career which occupied half of his lifetime.
In ending after 18 years a career that began when he was 18, Vettori gave symmetry to a body of work which contained 113 tests and 295 one-day internationals — both New Zealand records.
In his final match he scored nine runs and took 0-25 from five overs on Sunday which did little to nourish his record of 2,244 runs and 305 wickets in ODIs. But his 13 wickets and his remarkable economy rate throughout the tournament was instrumental in New Zealand qualifying for the World Cup final for the first time.
Brendan Taylor (Zimbabwe)
There was nobody who wouldn't have felt some remorse for Brendan Taylor, the Zimbabwe captain, who signed off his international career with a spectacular century against India. The sadness wasn't about his finishing on the losing side, but that he was quitting at just 29 years of age.
He has been the pre-eminent player of his side, hitting two centuries on the trot, one better than the other.
Apart from being the mainstay of the batting, Taylor also kept wickets, like his predecessor Andy Flower and like Kumar Sangakkara and MS Dhoni in the current tournament.
He called time on his international career after agreeing to a three-year contract with English county side Nottinghamshire that falls under the Kolpak ruling, which allows players from countries with Associate European Union (EU) Agreements to work in a EU country. This will also make him ineligible to represent Zimbabwe while that contract is in effect.
Taylor has been a standout batsman for his country for the past decade, averaging 34 in both his 23 Tests and 167 ODIs, and scoring 12 centuries across the two formats.
He accumulated 433 runs in 6 matches of the World Cup with two centuries at the strike rate and average of 106.91 and 72.16 respectively, much higher than the likes of Steven Smith, Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan.
