Ranking 10 greatest rescue knocks after early collapse in ODI history

7. Hamilton Masakadza – 83 after 49/7

This ODI was played during the three-match series between Zimbabwe and Afghanistan in 2016. In the third game, Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura elected to bat first. However, this decision backfired as the team was reduced to 49/7 by 19th over. At this stage, even the score of 100 was looking difficult for the team.

From there, senior batsman Hamilton Masakadza took the responsibility and shared a century partnership with Graeme Cremer. Masakadza played a brilliant knock of 83 runs off 138 balls which included 6 fours and 3 sixes. The Zimbabwe team was all-out for 175 runs in 48.3 overs, and the onus was on bowlers to defend this total.

In response to this target, the Afghanistan batsmen performed miserably as ten of them could not even touch the double-digit mark. The whole team was dismissed for 58 runs in 16.1 overs losing the match by 117 runs. Luke Jongwe picked up 5 wickets for only 6 runs in his 5.1 overs. Masakadza was given the player of the match award for his superb knock on a difficult pitch.