We get it, you dislike India and their players. All hail the mighty Australia.
It was a collective failure, how hard is it to understand? Clearly I should have written off Mark Waugh as an ODI player just because Australia flopped in the '92 WC.
That's really not it, at all. TBF, I thought you were better than that and you're just perpetuating the nonsense. Bevan built a legacy for impossible innings against amazing bowling. People think they can just compare the numbers flat out and encapsulate what he did; and then claim someone like Dhoni is as good as him. It's just crap if you've witnessed Bevan's career. And again, you could replace Dhoni with Hussey and my argument is the same so stop with the nationalistic bullcrap. Migara is starting to think he's funny.
Furthermore, it was a collective failure; but as a finisher Dhoni could have rescued those innings. If every time Aus collapsed and Bevan failed too...it would also be a collective failure. Yet he stood tall and built unbelievable innings. It would only take Dhoni to bat longer than 0 for his team to have stood a chance in that tourney; but scores of 0, 0 and 29 are the reason he and his team were sent home early. It's not even that they lost; it's that he didn't help at all.
2nd SF: Australia v West Indies at Mohali, Mar 14, 1996 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo - Aus against Windies; Aus collapse to 4-15; Bevan comes in and helps add about another 160 and helps Aus win the match. Reminds me of his last ball 4 victory against WIndies in another
match - that was incredible too.
16th Match: Australia v Pakistan at Leeds, May 23, 1999 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo - Aus against Pakistan; Aus fall to 4-101, chasing 276; Bevan helps Aus fightback to 214 without a loss; however not enough as Aus lost by 10 runs.
2nd SF: Australia v South Africa at Birmingham, Jun 17, 1999 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo - Aus against S.Africa; Aus fall to 4-68. Bevan and Waugh carry the fightback to 158, however Waugh goes. Bevan is left with the tail and takes Aus to a respectable 213. With some magic from Warne and a last ball blunder by Donald; Aus make the final in a thrilling match.
37th Match: Australia v England at Port Elizabeth, Mar 2, 2003 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo - Aus against England; Aus collapses to 4-48, chasing 204. Bevan comes in and steadies the ship to 111. The next 4 wickets go in a hurry for only 24 runs. Another crisis but Bevan with help from Bichel take 135 to 208, winning the match with 2 balls to spare. An unforgettable match (as all these matches are really).
5th Super: Australia v New Zealand at Port Elizabeth, Mar 11, 2003 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo - Aus against England; Aus collapse to a pumped up NZ to an embarressing score of 7/84. Bevan and Bichel once again put on a big partnership taking the score to 208. The Aus bowlers make the NZ bowlers look human and bowl NZ out 112, giving Aus the win.
And just LOOK at those attacks: Ambrose, Walsh, Bishop; Wasim, Akhtar, Saqlain; Donald, Pollock, Kallis and Klusener...
This is why I may seem a bit aggressive but you're talking about a guy who did this kind of thing a lot. The above were examples from the WC. Do you think anyone
cared that instead of slogging his way to those scores Bevan took his time and built innings to buy back the pride of his country?
When Dhoni has these kinds of innings in such a tournament; along with having the longevity and being able to compare statistically to Bevan...then that'll be a debate. And no, that has nothing to do nationalism.