Till date, just 7 instances where a team scored 15 or more runs in the final of an ODI have been recorded. Among those 7 instances, only three have been recorded in the past decade, and none in the last six years, and two of them even before the T20 format’s debut.
Read on to find out the most successful chases in the final of an ODI match.
- 17 runs by Zimbabwe vs Bangladesh in 2006:
In 2006, Zimbabwe hosted Bangladesh during a 5-match ODI series which was tied at 1-1 after the first two matches. The two teams faced off in Harare for the 3rd ODI hoping to go up 2-1 in the series. Rajin Saleh (54) and Mohammad Ashraful (46) backed Aftab Ahmed’s 39-ball 53, as Bangladesh ended with 236 after losing the toss.
Zimbabwe started to chase carefully, as they reached 121/2 by 31st over. The home team crumbled to 151/7 after a hat-trick by Shahadat Hossain in the space of 8 overs.
Brendan Taylor, who was batting on 30 off 40 balls, has been joined by No.9 batsman Tawanda Mupariwa. Despite the required rate comfortably climbing over 10, the duo took the game as deep as possible. Shahadat’s final two overs yielded 26 runs as the equation came down to 17 runs required from the last over.
The final over bowled by Mashrafe Mortaza started with a single from Mupariwa. By clearing the deep square-leg fence, Taylor then converted a full toss from Mortaza into a six.
No runs came on the next ball as Taylor hit straight to mid-wicket fielder by Mortaza bowled a wide on the next delivery. The keeper-batsman cleared another full toss for a boundary to bring down the equation to 5 off the last two balls.
Mupariwa was runout on the penultimate ball and Taylor opted not to run and kept the strike for the final ball. The persistence of Mashrafe with full toss balls cost his team as Brendan Taylor able to clear the fence to the right of long-on and seal a 1-wicket win for the hosts.
