Cricket's Most Remarkable Centuries: ICC World Cup hundreds that ended in defeat

Scoring a ton in the World Cup against a quality side becomes a moment of pride for any player. In a high-voltage game on the World Cup stage, when a batter holds his nerves and scores a century, he expects his team to utilize his efforts and hammer the opponents. However, sometimes, things don’t go the way the player wants.

In the World Cup, some players have got their hearts broken as they notched up centuries but their teams failed to win the match riding on their success. Back in 1992, when Pakistan lost to the West Indies by eight wickets in the World Cup, despite Ramiz Raja’s unbeaten 102, a lot of Pakistan cricket supporters got disheartened.

This isn’t the only instance when a batter’s ton went in vain in the World Cup. In the history of the World Cup, there are several instances to recount when batters scored scintillating centuries but their teams failed to take advantage of their performances.

Five World Cup tons that came in losing causes

5. Aamer Sohail’s 111 against South Africa in 1996

In 1996, Pakistan were the defending champions and they were looking to repeat their 1992 performance. As one of the hosts, they kicked off their campaign positively with their comprehensive victories against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and The Netherlands.

After a couple of wins, they had a face-off with heavyweights South Africa at the National Stadium, Karachi. In the massive game, Pakistan captain Wasim Akram won the toss and chose to bat first. Against the disciplined bowling, opener Aamer Sohail stepped up and played a confident knock of 111 runs from 139 deliveries.

Riding on the southpaw’s fine innings, the Men in Green posted a decent total of 242 runs on the board. Replying to Pakistan, South Africa pulled off the target in 44.2 overs. Gary Kirsten and Daryll Cullinan played crucial knocks of 44 and 65, respectively while the captain Hansie Cronje took the team home with his unbeaten 45-run innings.