Rubel among top ten bowling performances in World Cup

From Tim Southee to Mitchell Starc and Wahab Riaz, Bangladesh pacer Rubel Hossain got him among the top 10 bowling performances in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 at Australia and New Zealand.

Rubel sealed a spot in the top ten defying all other barriers including better bats with thicker blades, two new balls, only four fielders outside the 30-yard circle during Power Play and shorter boundaries that gave batsmen the edge.

The initial stages of the tournament saw some big hitting, but the bowlers had their say too as the ball came back with a bang, states ICC yesterday.

The match that made Rubel star with 9.3-0-53-4 was against England in Adelaide that ensured Tigers' quarter-final ever in the world cup history.

In that match that decided a quarter-final spot, chasing Bangladesh's 275, England seemed to be on cruise mode. Rubel Hossain, who was regularly hitting speeds of over 145 kph, bowled five overs and went for some runs before breaking England's first line of defence.

He got rid of Ian Bell and sent back Eoin Morgan a couple of balls later for a duck to inject Bangladesh with a sense of belief. Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes added 75 to pull things back, but Buttler's dismissal and an unfortunate run out of Chris Jordan left them with 38 runs to get from 24 balls with two wickets to spare.

Stuart Broad and Woakes kept England in before Rubel returned. He struck in his very first delivery as he slammed Broad's stumps, and when he sent James Anderson packing in the second delivery faced, Rubel was already under a heap of his overjoyed team-mates.

The others in the top bowling performances in the World Cup include chronologically R Ashwin (India), 8-3-41-1 against Pakistan in Adelaide, Tim Southee (New Zealand), 9-0-33-7 against England in Wellington, Hamid Hassan (Afghanistan), 9-0-45-3 against Sri Lanka in Dunedin, Shapoor Zadran (Afghanistan), 10-1-38-4 against Scotland in Dunedin, Trent Boult (New Zealand), 10-3-27-5 against Australia in Auckland, Mitchell Starc (Australia), 9-0-28-6 against New Zealand in Auckland, Imran Tahir (South Africa), 8.2-0-26-4 against Sri Lanka in Sydney in the first quarter-final, Wahab Riaz (Pakistan), 9-0-54-2 against Australia in Adelaide in the third quarter-final and James Faulkner (Australia), 9-1-36-3 against New Zealand in Melbourne in the final match.