Top 5 successful chases in last over of an ODI

3. 17 runs by Zimbabwe vs Bangladesh in 2006:

Zimbabwe hosted Bangladesh during a 5-match ODI series in 2006 which was tied at 1-1 after first two matches. The two sides faced off in Harare for the 3rd ODI aiming to go 2-1 up in the series. Aftab Ahmed’s 39-ball 53 was backed by Rajin Saleh (54) and Mohammad Ashraful (46) as Bangladesh finished with 236 after losing the toss.

Zimbabwe began the chase cautiously as they reached 121/2 by 31st over. In space of 8 overs, the home team crumbled to 151/7 following a hat-trick by Shahadat Hossain.

Brendan Taylor, who was batting on 30 off 40 balls, was joined by No.9 batsman Tawanda Mupariwa. The duo took the game as deep as possible despite the required rate comfortably climbed over 10. The final two overs of Shahadat yielded 26 runs as the equation came down to 17 runs required from the last over.

The final over bowled by Mashrafe Mortaza began with a single by Mupariwa. Taylor then converted a full toss from Mortaza into a six by clearing the deep square-leg fence.

No runs came on the next ball as Taylor hit straight to mid-wicket fielder by Mortaza bowled a wide on the following delivery. Another full toss was cleared by the keeper-batsman for a boundary to bring the equation down to 5 off last two balls.

Mupariwa was runout on the penultimate ball and Taylor decided not to run and retain the strike for the final ball. Mashrafe’s persistence with full toss balls cost his team as Brendan Taylor managed cleared the fence to the right of long-on and seal a 1-wicket win for the hosts.