The 50-over World Cup format has always got fans excited as it provides an opportunity to the players to create new records and break the old ones. The form remains consistent throughout the game that serves as a boost for the winning team. An ODI game is considered to be a batsman’s and a bowler’s game. There are a few matches that create history but also on the other hand, some of them do not go in favour of the bowler’s. Here are the top five players with the worst bowling figures in the history of the World Cup.
Top 5 Worst Bowling Figures
| Player | Country | Runs | Overs | Against | Wickets | Year |
| Rashid Khan | Afghanistan | 110 | 9 | England | 0 | 2019 |
| Martin Snedden | New Zealand | 105 | 12 | England | 2 | 1983 |
| Jason Holder | West Indies | 104 | 10 | South Africa | 0 | 2015 |
| Dawlat Zadran | Afghanistan | 101 | 10 | Australia | 2 | 2015 |
| Ashantha de Mel | Sri Lanka | 97 | 10 | West Indies | 1 | 1987 |
1. Rashid Khan: 110 off 9 overs against England
Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan ranks at No. 3 among all the bowlers in the ODI rankings. Despite the feat, he scored his most expensive spell in World Cup history against England at Old Trafford during the 2019 World Cup.
In the match, England cricketers Eoin Morgan, Jonny Bairstow, and Joe Root destroyed Afghanistan to the core as it amassed 397 runs with a loss of 6 wickets. Out of the total runs, 110 runs were single handedly conceded by Rashid Khan for just 9 overs.
2. Martin Snedden: 105 off 12 against England
It was June 9, 1983 when Martin Snedden became the first bowler to concede more than 100 runs in an ODI game. Held at The Oval, the then England skipper Bob Willis opted to bat first. The English men took a big score with Snedden leaking off the crucial runs.
At that time, no one had thought of a bowler conceding these no. of runs which Martin did. He gave 105 runs off 12 overs leading England to victory. New Zealand was knocked out of the World Cup while England lost to team India in the semi-finals.
3. Jason Holder: 104 off 10 overs against South Africa
During its pool B encounter of the 2015 World Cup, a heavy defeat came on the side of West Indies with South Africa thrashing them by a margin of 257 runs. The South African side posed a 405 target for West Indies with the then skipper AB de Villiers scoring an unbeaten knock of 162 off 66 balls.
Interestingly, at the time, Jason Holder was leading Bangladesh in the tournament who conceded a total of 104 runs in 10 overs. To this Jason replied “We did pretty well early on, keeping the run-rate down, but AB took the game away from us. If you take away his innings, it looked a totally different score.”
4. Dawlat Zadran’s 101 off 10 overs against Australia
It was again during the 2015 World Cup group stage match, when a bowler registered the 4th worst bowling figures in the history of the World Cup. Though Afghanistan’s Dawlat Zadran made a good start to the match with picking up the wicket of Aaron Finch in the 3rd over, he went on with leaking 101 runs in the next 10 overs.
Played at Perth, Afghanistan made its World Cup debut in 2015. However, the Men in Australia took over the game by 275 runs with David Warner becoming the Player of the MatchMatch for scoring an unbeaten 173 off 133 deliveries.
5. Ashantha de Mel: 97 off 10 overs against West Indies
West Indies really did outplay Sri Lanka during the 1987 World Cup match at National Stadium, Karachi. West Indies was actually the strongest team during the 1980s-1990s. In no mood to spare any Sri Lankan bowler, Vivian Richards took away the game in favour of West Indies by building up a target of 360 runs.
Ashantha de Mel got unlucky on the Lankan side and conceded a total of 97 runs off 10 mere overs. Their bowling performance shattered the confidence of Sri Lankan batters as well. Ashantha just took one wicket and that too of Sir Vivian Richards.
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