Watch: All Those Mohammed Shami’s 45 World Cup Wickets (image-instagram/mdshami.11)
India, after defeating Sri Lanka in their seventh match of ICC World Cup 2023, became the first team to enter the semi-finals. As an add-on treat, the Indian pacer Mohammed Shami became India’s highest wicket-taker in ODI World Cup history after taking a 5-wicket-haul in the last game.
View this post on Instagram
After being benched in the initial few matches of the campaign, he seized the opportunity to outperform from the match against New Zealand. He has taken down 45 wickets in just 14 matches to create the record. The right arm-pacer wreaked havoc with his remarkable pace bowling in the campaign.
He surpassed the joint-record of former Indian pacers Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan, both had 44 wickets in their names. But Shami achieved the staggering feat in 14 innings, while Zaheer bagged 44 in 23 innings and Javagal in 34 innings.
Its about finding rhythm, hitting right areas, keeping an uncluttered mind, and feeding off the love of the people, Shami said after receiving the Player of the match award. The pacer took his third five-wicket haul in the last match against Sri Lanka. Earlier he picked up fifers in the match against New Zealand in this edition and against Afghanistan in 2019.
Shami also became the second bowler in the history after Waqar Younis to take four wickets or more in three straight matches more than once in his career.
In the last match, Shami started off his wicket haul by dismissing Charith Asalanka in the 10th over followed by handing over ducks to Dushan Hemantha and Dushmantha Chameera. The ground-breaking moment came in after dismissing Kasun Rajitha in the 17th over of the match. Shami once again proved to be the wrecker in chief for India. India produced a devastating spell against Sri Lanka in the 33rd match of the ICC World Cup at Wankhede Stadium.
India opened the match by batting and put up a massive score of 357/8 riding on half-centuries from Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer.
