5 Biggest ODI chokes while chasing a target in the 21st century

1. West Indies vs Australia in St Kitts, 2008

Australia lost the one-off T20I during the Caribbean tour in 2008 after winning the 3-match Test series by 2-0 margin. They bounced back in the ODI series by registering a hat-trick of wins to take a series-winning lead. The 4th ODI was hosted by Warner Park in Basseterre. Andrew Symonds (87 off 78) and David Hussey (50 off 51) powered the Aussies to 282/8 with help of their 127-run partnership for the 5th wicket. West Indies lost the wicket of Xavier Marshall in the very first over of the chase.

But their captain Chris Gayle put the West Indies in the hunt with a century partnership with Ramnaresh Sarwan. They added 137 runs for the 2nd wicket in only 23.1 overs before Sarwan got out scoring 63 from 79 balls. Gayle shared a 50-run stand in exactly 10 overs with Shivnarine Chanderpaul later. The West Indies skipper eventually got out in the 34th over at the score of 188/3. He scored run-a-ball 92 with ten fours and four sixes.

Dwayne Bravo played a crucial knock of 31 off 32 balls to take the team total to 247/4 in 43 overs. He and Chanderpaul added 59 runs for the 4th wicket in only 56 balls. West Indies further needed only 36 from 7 overs with plenty of handy batsmen to come. Brett Lee picked up his 3rd wicket of the innings by dismissing Shawn Findley in the 48th over. The hosts were pretty much in the driver seat at that point as they needed only 12 more runs in 16 balls.

Denesh Ramdin played out the remaining four balls of the Lee’s over while only 4 runs came in the penultimate 49th over bowled by Nathan Bracken. Chanderpaul was cleaned up on the last ball of the over while trying for a big heave. Shane Watson got the ball to defend 8 runs in the last over against the likes of Daren Sammy and Ramdin. The Australian all-rounder gave away only 1 run on all the six balls. As a result, the Caribbean team fell a run short of the visitors’ total.