Michael Gwyl Bevan (born 8 May 1970) is a former Australian cricketer. He is a left-handed batsman and a slow left arm wrist-spin bowler. He has been credited for initiating the art of finishing matches. For several years, he was considered as world's finest ever ODI batsman as he often topped the ICC ODI batting rankings on numerous occasions. He was the first Canberra-born player to represent Australia at international level. He was known for his ability to run between the wickets at a quick rate and for his ability to play shots down the ground with ease.
He was an Australian Cricket Academy scholarship holder in 1989. He played 232 One Day Internationals (ODIs) for Australia, and was a part of the 1999 and 2003 teams that won the Cricket World Cup. He represented Australia at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, where cricket was included in the Commonwealth Games for the first time.
He has amassed 15103 runs in List A cricket at an average of 57.86 which is the highest average by any player to have scored 10,000 runs in List A cricket. He was named as a batsman in Australia's "greatest ever ODI team."
Playing career
Domestic career
Michael Bevan's first senior club was Weston Creek Cricket Club in Canberra. He made his first-class debut in 1989-90 domestic season for New South Wales and scored a century in the first innings of the match.
Although Bevan played most of his domestic career for the New South Wales Blues, he moved to the Tasmanian Tigers for the 2004–05 season, where he continued his successes up until his retirement in January 2007. He also played for South Australia and in England for Yorkshire, Leicestershire and Sussex. In the 2004/05 Sheffield Shield season, he scored a then-record 1464 runs in the season for Tasmania. Despite this form, he missed Australian selection.
ODI career
He made his ODI debut on 14 April 1994 against Sri Lanka in the 1994 Austral-Asia Cup atv Sharjah and was not required to bat as Australia chased down 155 comfortably with nine wickets to spare. By the 1995–96 season, he became a regular in the side. He proved a reliable anchor at the bottom of the middle order, and he would often patiently guide Australia to victory following a rare top-order collapse – leading to him being nicknamed "The Finisher". By the end of his ODI career, Bevan was known as the "Pyjama Picasso". During his ODI career, he managed to hit just 21 sixes in 232 ODI matches. He batted 45 times in successful ODI run chases for Australia and out of those 45 outings, he remained unbeaten at the crease on 25 occasions.
One of his most famous "anchor" innings was in the New Year's Day One Day International at the Sydney Cricket Ground against the West Indies in 1996 during the Benson & Hedges World Series. With the Australians at one stage 6/38 chasing 173, his unbeaten 150-minute 78 got the Australians over the line with a four on the last ball of the innings. He was the second leading run scorer in the 1995/96 Benson & Hedges World Series only behind Mark Taylor with an aggregate of 389 runs in 10 innings at an impressive mind boggling average of 194.5, bolstered by eight not-outs out of the 10 innings striking at 83.65 throughout the tournament.
He featured in his first World Cup tournament during the 1996 Cricket World Cup and played a crucial role to help Australia to reach the final of the tournament by scoring 69 runs in the semi-final clash against the West Indies, a match which is highly remembered and known due to the dramatic collapse of the West Indies in a low scoring run chase of 208. He also played an important cameo of unbeaten 36 off 49 balls in the 1996 World Cup final which propelled Australia to a decent total of 241/7 on the board. However, his efforts went in vain as Sri Lanka chased down 242 to win their maiden World Cup title.
He was selected to the Australian squad for the 50 over cricket tournament at the 1998 Commonwealth Games where Australia became runners-up in the competition to South Africa. He was a key member of the Australian side which lifted the 1999 Cricket World Cup.