The year 2014 has come to an end and before we focus on 2015 let us take a look at the bests of 2014 in International Cricket:
Most matches won by a Team:
TEST CRICKET: Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka hold the record for most test wins in the 2014 with 5 wins each. Australia and New Zealand played 9 matches each and Sri Lanka played 12 matches in 2014.
India had a disappointing 2014 in terms of test cricket as they won only 1 match of the 10 played.
ODI CRICKET: Sri Lanka tops the list as they have won 20 matches in the 32 ODIs played by them.
India is on 2nd position with 14 wins in 24 matches.
T20I CRICKET: In the shortest format of the game, it is the Australians with most number of wins to their name as they have won 9 matches of the 13 played.
India have won 5 in their 7 matches.
Most runs scored by a batsmen:
TEST CRICKET: Kumar Sangakkara has had one of the best seasons in Test cricket as he scored 1493 runs in the 12 matches that he played.
Indian batsmen with most number of runs in 2014 is Murali Vijay with 852 runs in 10 matches.
ODI CRICKET: Kumar Sangakkara also tops the list of players with most runs in ODI cricket as well as he scored 1256 runs in 28 matches.
From India it is Virat Kohli who is on top with 1054 runs in 24 matches. He is on 3rd position in the overall list.
T20I CRICKET: Alex Hales from England tops the list with 397 runs in 12 matches.
From India it is Virat Kohli again with 385 runs in 7 matches. Had he played even a single match more, we can sure that, he would have crossed 400 runs and also topped the overall list.
Most wickets by a bowler:
TEST CRICKET: Rangana Herath from Sri Lanka has picked up 60 wickets in the 10 matches he played and is the highest wicket taker in 2014.
From India, it is Ishanth Sharma with 38 wickets in 8 matches.
ODI CRICKET: Mohammed Shami of India and Ajanta Mendis top this list with 38 wickets each in 16 and 17 matches respectively.
T20I CRICKET: Samuel Badree of West Indies makes it to the top with 19 wickets in 12 matches.
From India it is Ashwin with 11 wickets in 7 matches to top the list.
Most hundreds in 2014:
TEST CRIKCET: Thanks to some brilliant batting by David Warner against India in the first three tests, he tops the list with 6 centuries in 9 matches. Younis Khan from Pakistan is also on top with 6 hundreds in 10 matches.
From India it is Virat Kohli with 4 centuries in 10 matches.
ODI CRICKET: Hashim Amla from South Africa has hit 5 centuries in ODIs in 2014 from 18 matches and makes it to the top.
On number 3 and number 1 for India we have Virat Kohli with 4 centuries in 21 matches.
In T20 there were just 2 centuries scored, one each by Alex Hales (Eng), Ahmed Shehzad (Pak).
Most sixes (6s) in 2014
TEST CRICKET: Thanks to some hard hitting by McCullum against Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Brendon McCullum tops the list of players to hit most 6s in Test matches with 33 of those in 9 matches.
From India it is Murali Vijay with 6 sixes in 2014 in 10 matches to top the list.
ODI CRICKET: Corey Anderson (NZ), who also struck the fastest ODI hundred tops this list with 27 sixes in 12 matches.
For India it is Rohit Sharma with 22 sixes in 12 matches, many of which came in his record breaking innings of 264.
T20I CRICKET: T20 specialist Glen Maxwell is the one to top here with 16 sixes 12 matches.
For India it is Kohli again with 11 sixes in 7 matches.
Highest Individual scores in 2014
TEST CRICKET: Sangakkara’s innings of 319 against Bangladesh at Dhaka was the highest score for a player in 2014 in Tests.
For India, Virat Kohli’s innings of 169 at Melbourne in the Boxing Day match was the best.
ODI CRICKET: No points for guessing this as Rohit Sharma’s historic innings of 264 runs in a One Day match won’t be forgotten by the Sri Lankans and the Eden Gardens crowd ever.
T20I CRICKET: Alex Hales innings of 116* against Sri Lanka is the best.
For India it is Virat Kohli’s innings of 77 against Sri Lanka to top the list.
Best Bowling Figures in an innings in 2014
TEST CRICKET: Rangana Herath bowling figures of 9 for 127 against Pakistan almost got him to the point where he could pick up all the 10 wickets in an innings but still, this performance of his remains the best in 2014.
For India, Ishanth Sharma’s match winning performance 7 for 74 against England at Lord’s remains the best in 2014.
ODI CRICKET: An unexpected performance of bowling by Stuart Binny against Bangladesh makes him top the list. Binny picked up 6 wickets and gave away just 4 runs in 4.4 overs.
T20I CRICKET: Rangan Herath again tops here for his figures of 5 for 3 against New Zealand.
For India, its Ashwin’s performance of 4 for 11 against Australia is the best in 2014.
This was a small compilation of few of the bests that took place in 2014 as covering wouldn’t be possible. But as we now enter 2015, one would expect a lot better performance for India and when we make a compilation for the Bests of 2015, there should be more Indians on top.
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015!