In just his fourth ODI for New Zealand, Michael Bracewell produced one of the greatest innings of all time in the format.
Nicknamed ‘The Beast’ by his teammates, Bracewell arrived at the crease with the score at 120-5 in pursuit of 301 for victory in Dublin on Sunday.
New Zealand, playing against Ireland in the first of three ODIs, slipped even further to 153-6 and then to 217-8 leaving New Zealand needing 84 to win off just 44 deliveries with only two wickets in hand.
At this point, Bracewell, who, going into this match had scored only four ODI runs from his previous two innings, had ambled to 50 off of 51 balls. But with New Zealand with their backs against the wall and facing the prospect of a historic first defeat to Ireland, Bracewell turned on ‘Beast’ mode and launched an assault.
Of the 84 runs required for victory, Bracewell smashed 73. Off the final ten overs, Bracewell scored 86 runs off 36 balls, with the rest of his team contributing just 19. He brought up his century off 74 balls, going from 50 to 100 in just 23 deliveries. He celebrated in muted fashion, with 24 off 12 balls still required for victory.
However, his heroics looked set to have been for nothing, as a fantastic penultimate over from Mark Adair went for just four runs, while claiming the wicket of Lockie Ferguson, meaning New Zealand required 20 runs off the final six balls with just one wicket in hand.
Bracewell once again rose to the occasion: he struck the first two balls for four as he lap-swept the seam of Conor Young for four through fine leg in consecutive deliveries.
Despite the good start to the final over, 12 runs were still required off four balls, which became six off three as Bracewell launched his sixth six of the innings over mid-wicket.
Six off three then became two off two as Bracewell hit a fourth boundary in a row through square leg, before bringing up the winning moment with another massive six.
It was an innings for the ages and saw numerous records tumble. In the last twenty years, it is the third-highest number of runs (101) that have been chased in the final ten overs. The 20 runs scored off the final over was the most to have ever been successfully chased in the fiftieth over an ODI, beating the previous record of 18 that had stood since 1987 when England beat Australia.
Highest scores at No.7 or lower in successful ODI chases:
127* M Bracewell, NZ v Ire, today
111* T Odoyo, Ken v Can, 2007
109* A Razzaq, Pak v SA, 2010
108 G Maxwell, Aus v Eng, 2020 #NZvIRE— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) July 10, 2022
