Top 5 successful chases in last over of an ODI

2. 18 runs by England vs Australia in 1987:

England and West Indies featured in the Benson and Hedges World Series Cup hosted by Australia at the start of 1987. In the first round matches, all the three teams won one game each out of two they played. England lost to Australia by 11 runs after defeating West Indies by 6 wickets who got better of Aussies by 7 wickets later.

Australia and England faced off in the 4th game of the tournament hosted by Sydney. An opening stand of 109 between Geoff Marsh and Dirk Wellham pushed Aussies to 189/2 by 38th over. However, the lack of acceleration towards the end saw Australia finish on 233/8.

Wellham anchored the innings with a 144-ball 97 by hitting five fours. During the chase, Chris Broad (45) and David Gower (50) scored at 75+ strike rate as England reached 134 by end of the 34th over losing only two wickets. But the English team kept losing wickets trying to find big shots and were down to 202/7 by 47th over. England needed 18 runs from the last over to be bowled by Bruce Reid. The No.4 batsman Allan Lamb who scored 59 from 98 balls was on the strike for the final over.

Lamb picked a risky couple on the first ball which he hit towards covers region and found the gap on the on-side with a glance for a boundary on the following delivery. The equation came down to 6 from last 3 balls as Lamb smashed the 3rd delivery into the crowd over cow-corner. An overthrow on the 4th ball helped Lamb remain on strike with four runs still needed from the last two balls. Allan Lamb ensured he finished the game with an unbeaten 77 as he found a boundary to the right of the mid-wicket fielder.