Although everybody can have a bad day at the office, playing in a T20 World Cup match for your country is not the ideal time for it to happen to somebody.
Those bowlers currently in Australia playing in the Super 12 stage of the competition will be desperately hoping that their names are not added to the roll call of those who have conceded the most runs in a single match.
Here are those who are in this dubious club at present.
Sanath Jayasuriya (64 runs)
Although better known as a batter, Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya was also an orthodox left-armed spin bowler, who was known for getting through his overs quickly and his ability to bowl faster balls and yorkers.
However, in the very first World Cup which was played in South Africa in 2007, the Pakistan batters took a particular liking to his bowling in their group match.
Pakistan were struggling at 33/3 when the experienced pair of Shoaib Malik and Younis Khan came together and went on the attack, The bowlers were smashed to all parts of the ground, none more so than Jayasuriya, whose four overs cost 64 runs and he failed to take a wicket either.
Pakistan eventually posted 189 runs and Sri Lanka could only manage 156/9 in their reply.
Mashrafe Mortaza (63 runs)
Seven years later Pakistan again inflicted a lot of damage on an opposition attack, although this time it was Bangladesh who were their opponents in Dhaka.
Pakistan won the toss and batted first and, led by opener Ahmed Shehzad, who carried his bat for an unbeaten 111, they piled on the runs making 190/5 from their 20 overs.
The man who was most in the firing line was pace bowler Mashrafe Mortaza, whose four overs cost 63 runs and he failed to take a wicket. Pakistan won the match in the end by 50 runs.
Lameck Onyango (61 runs)
Kenya qualified for the inaugural World Cup in 2007, and were drawn in Group C alongside New Zealand and New Zealand (the top two teams from each group qualified for what was a Super 8 phase that year).
This time, Jayasuriya, who was to have his own bad game with the ball later in the competition, was one of the men causing havoc with the bat making 88 of 44 balls, whilst Mahela Jayawardene made 65 off 27 deliveries.
Sri Lanka finished on 260/6 from their allotted overs, one of the highest scores the still relatively new format had seen up to that stage. Whilst few of the Kenyan bowlers will look back on their figures that day with any fondness, it was medium pace bowler Lameck Onyango who suffered the most. His four overs cost 61 run and he failed to take a wicket.
Stuart Broad (60 runs)
The 2007 World Cup, which was won by India, featured many memorable individual performances, arguably none better than Yuvraj Singh, who became the first player to smash 6 sixes off one over in the format of the game at international level.
The unfortunate bowler on the end of this barrage was England’s Stuart Broad,
It set a record, which has since been equalled, but not surpassed, for the most runs conceded by a bowler in a T20I match, and saw Yuvraj reach his 50 in just 12 balls, another record which stands to this day.
Broad’s 4 overs came at the cost of 60 runs, and he failed to take a wicket.
To date, no other player has managed to match Yuvraj’s feat in a World Cup match.
Mitchell Starc (60 runs)
Australia may have won the 2021 World Cup, beating New Zealand by 7 wickets in the final in Dubai, but it was in spite of, rather than because of the bowling of Mitchell Starc. The left armed pace bowler went for 60 runs off his four overs, conceding 9 fours and a six, and his cause was not helped by bowling a wide and a no ball.
Fortunately for him it did not matter on the day.
The rest of the bowlers managed to keep the New Zealand batters down to 172/4, which the Australian batters were able to knock off for the loss of just two wickets.
Starc’s subsequent celebrations had a taint of relief about them.
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