ICC ODI World Cup 2019 Trivia Quiz

Answer: 10

As Afghanistan and Ireland gained test match status in 2017 to raise the total number of test-playing ICC members to 12, this was the first ICC World Cup in which not every test-status nation competed. Zimbabwe and Ireland were the unlucky pair of countries to miss out, with the 10competing teams being (in alphabetical order) Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and the West Indies. Afghanistan and the West Indies qualified to compete following the 2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier, defeating Zimbabwe and Scotland respectively. Rumours circulated about a new round-robin format and a reduction of competing teams from 14 to 10 teams years before it was officially announced in 2015.

The decision was controversial, with ex-cricketers and some commentators such as Sachin Tendulkar and Martin Crowe criticising the decision. Some such as as Jonathan Agnew (writing for the BBC in 2015) and Hasan Minhaj (on the Netflix series "Patriot Act") speculated the decision was made after mounting pressure from wealthy test countries such as India to increase broadcasting attention given to the major cricketing nations, and thus increasing revenue.

Answer: 4

Pakistan v Sri Lanka, Bangladesh v Sri Lanka, and India v New Zealand were all abandoned without a single ball bowled, while South Africa v West Indies was also abandoned after just 7.3 overs. A further three matches were determined by the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method: Sri Lanka defeating Afghanistan, South Africa defeating Afghanistan, and India defeating Pakistan. The DLS system is used to calculate a winner when a match has to be abandoned but both teams have faced enough deliveries to ascertain who would likely win. Thankfully, the rain mostly impacted the start of the tournament and matches 23 onwards were played in full.

The substantial amount of rain led to criticism of the competition's organisers for not scheduling reserve days, however Dave Richardson of the World Cup called the rain "unexpected" and "unseasonable" and stated that reserve days would have been practically unviable. For comparison, only two matches in World Cup history had ever been abandoned due to rain prior to the 2019 tournament.

Answer: Andile Phehlukwayo

In a moment that will surely live on in glory, Ben Stokes took a leaping one-handed catch close to the boundary while facing the wrong direction to dismiss bowler Andile Phehlukwayo off Adil Rashid's bowling. Stokes had a fantastic match, taking 2 wickets off his bowling while also claiming a run-out, two catches and an 89-run batting innings. England went on to comfortably claim victory over South Africa by 104 runs, dismissing the South Africans after 39.5 overs. Rassie van der Dussen was caught by Moeen Ali off Jofra Archer's bowling, Hashim Amla was caught by Jos Buttler off Liam Plunkett's bowling, and Lungi Ngidi was not out.

Other stand-out catches from the tournament include Quinton de Kock of South Africa to dismiss India's Virat Kohli, Shai Hope and Sheldon Cottrell of the West Indies to dismiss Australia's Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith (respectively), Steve Smith of Australia to dismiss New Zealand's Tom Latham, and Pakistan's Sarfaraz Ahmed to dismiss Ross Taylor of New Zealand, amongst many other spectacular efforts.

Answer: Afghanistan

Afghanistan's match against England was particularly demoralising. Exciting spinner Rashid Khan severely under-performed with the ball to end up 0/110; the worst bowling figures in ODI history to date. Meanwhile, England's Eoin Morgan picked up the most sixes by one batsman in ODI hisory (a cool 14) to post a boggling innings of 148 runs, while Bairstow and Root finished with 90 and 88 respectively. Hashmatullah Shahidi was the only Afghani batsman to show any fight, posting 76 runs on the way to a 150-run loss; the highest losing margin of the series.

Despite not picking up a victory and putting in some poor performances, the Afghani campaign was not altogether unsuccessful. The highlight for Afghanistan was their nail-biting finish against India. Afghanistan bowled well to keep India to a restricted 224/8 total. Building off a gallant 55-run innings from Mohammad Nabi, Afghanistan took India to the final over in the match before a hat-trick from Indian pace bowler Mohammed Shami sealed the deal for India with one ball left to bowl.

Bangladesh surprised many by finishing with three victories and being competitive in most others, while Sri Lanka and Pakistan picked up three and five wins respectively.

Answer: Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma finished with 647 runs in the group stage, nine runs ahead of the next highest run scorer David Warner (638). Sharma hit a staggering 5 centuries in the group stage, the most in the tournament, and his batting average of 92.42 for the group stage was the second highest behind New Zealand's Kane Williamson (96.20). Sharma also hit the most boundaries for the group stage, hitting 81 total, including the most fours with 67. The best individual innings came from Australia's David Warner with 166 runs against Bangladesh. Eoin Morgan hit the most sixes with 22, 14 of which came against Afghanistan. After the finals, Sharma finished on top with with 648.

Joe Root finished fifth on the group stage run tally with 500, while Kane Williamson finished at sixth with 481. Root finished the entire tournament with 556 and Williamson finished with 578.

Answer: India

India finished with seven victories and just one loss against England to finish on top of the table. Australia, the next on the table, finished with seven victories and two losses against India and South Africa. The fact the India v New Zealand match was abandoned without a result and the India v Pakistan match was decided by the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method therefore could well have had an impact on the final rankings.

The other options rounded out the top four, with England at three and New Zealand at four.

Answer: Bangladesh

Coming into the tournament as part of an historically under-performing nation, the 2019 World Cup gave Shabib Al Hasan a platform like no other to demonstrate his talents. Shahib Al Hasan finished with 606 runs for the tournament, placing third in the overall batting rankings behind India's Rohit Sharma and Australia's David Warner. His batting average of 86.57 was also the third best in the tournament after the group stages, behind New Zealand's Kane Williamson and India's Rohit Sharma, and the highest after the finals. His best batting performance came against the West Indies, in which he helped his team to victory with 124 runs not out. He ended the tournament with an innings of 64, meaning he ended with five 50s and two centuries in his nine innings with the bat. This equalled Sachin Tendulkar's record for the most 50+ innings in a tournament. To top off his brilliant run of batting, his 60 fours was also the third most fours for the tournament, and his 62 boundaries total the fifth most.

Shahib Al Hasan also had a fantastic tournament with the ball, taking 11 wickets. His best bowling figures of 5/29 came against Afghanistan; the third best bowling figures for the group stages. He also reached a half century in this match, making him only the second player to take 5 wickets and reach 50 in World Cup history after India's Yuvraj Singh. He became the first cricketer in World Cup history to score more than 500 runs and take at least 10 wickets in one tournament.

Despite this excellent series, the Man of the Tournament was given to New Zealand's Kane Williamson, for his 578 and stand-out captaincy.

Answer: Mitchell Starc

Mitchell Starc took a brilliant 26 wickets, including two five wicket hauls against New Zealand and the West Indies. He finished a full six wickets ahead of the next highest wicket taker, Bangladesh's Mustafizur Rahman (20). Both Starc and Rahman were the only two bowlers to take two five-wicket hauls. Starc's innings of 5/26 was also the second best innings with the ball in the tournament, behind Pakistan's Shaheen Afridi's 6/35 against Bangladesh. Starc's bowling average of 16.61 was the sixth best in the tournament and he had the third highest strike rate. Starc took one wicket in the finals to finish with 27.

Pat Cummins finished with 13 wickets after the group stage, while Jason Behrendorff took nine and Marcus Stoinis took seven.

Answer: New Zealand

After winning the coin toss and electing to bat, New Zealand set a low total of 239. Cornerstone batsmen Kane Williamson and Henry Taylor were New Zealand's best performers with 67 and 74 runs respectively. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was India's best bowler, picking up three wickets, while Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, and Yuzvendra Chahal picked up one wicket each. The New Zealand batting innings was split between Tuesday July 9 and Wednesday July 10 due to a rain interruption.

India suffered an early batting collapse, sitting at three wickets for just five runs after 17 deliveries before losing another wicket at 24 runs. As he so often has, MS Dhoni steadied the ship as things began to look dire, making his way to 50 runs. However he was run out at a pivotal moment for 50 after a brilliant direct hit from Martin Guptill. Ravindra Jadeja also contributed a valuable 72-run innings. In the end, tight bowling and fielding resulted in India getting dismissed for 221 off 49.3 overs. The wickets were fairly spread out for New Zealand, with Matt Henry the top performer with 3/37.

Answer: A batsman scored a century

Both England and New Zealand were playing for their first World Cup title, and the final was as dramatic as you could get. After both teams batted, the score was a tie at 241 each. Not only that, both teams scored 15 runs in the Super Over, resulting in an England victory only due to a back-up rule: if the score is even at the Super Over, the team with the most boundaries in the match wins.

New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat. With batting partners collapsing around him, Henry Nicholls battled to top the New Zealand batting order with 55 runs. Chris Woakes and Liam Plunkett were important for England with three wickets each. With tight bowling and fielding, New Zealand managed to restrict England to 241 runs. Ben Stokes was the pillar of England with 84 vital runs, the highest score for the tournament while Jos Buttler also contributed an important 59. In a cruel twist of bad luck, Ben Stokes was hit by a ball on track to the New Zealand wicket keeper, which deflected to score a six. Lockie Ferguson and James Neesham contributed three wickets for New Zealand. On the final delivery of their innings, England needed two runs to win, but a run-out forced them into a Super Over.

Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes were sent into the Super Over to face Trent Boult, who had been vital throughout the tournament. They scored 15, setting 16 runs for New Zealand to win. Martin Guptill and James Neesham were selected to face Jofra Archer in their Super Over. Archer bowled a wide and was hit for six, but England held on after a run-out on the final delivery kept New Zealand to 15. Ben Stokes was named Man of the Final.

England were crowned world champions as they scored more boundary fours and sixes: 26 to 17 by New Zealand.