Ranked: The 20 best meaningless ODIs of all time

There is a certain type of classic match that registers indelibly for anyone who saw it, and yet catches the cricketing public completely by surprise. You know the type – a crazy innings, a tight finish, a heroic performance served up in a game that few neutrals knew or cared about before it got good. We had one of those just a day ago, when Harry Brook scored a stunning double century only to be left with the record for the highest score in a losing cause. Sri Lanka never took their foot off the accelerator as they gobbled down the second-highest chase of all time.

And with all due respect to passionate fans of the KFC Presents Bank Al Falah Trophy, despite the ridiculous numbers, it was precisely the sort of match that will be lost in time, like tears in the rain. Being a KFC presents Bank Al Falah partisan myself, I felt it was important that we try and grab onto these ephemeral memories, and create a whole list out of them.

What follows is a very personal and definitely incomplete list of epic yet meaningless ODI games. Some of these are part of obscure tournaments, many are run-of-the-mill bilaterals, and none took place in an ICC event. Completely free of the drama and context of a World Cup, these games nonetheless live long in the memory. By definition, there will be games missed out and games you disagree with. That’s the whole point.

#20 Sri Lanka almost chase 400

India 414-7 (V Sehwag 146 MS Dhoni 72) beat Sri Lanka 411-8 (T Dilshan 160, K Sangakkara 90) by 3 runs

1st ODI, Rajkot, December 15, 2009

If the first innings felt unreal, the second innings felt like an acid trip, even if both followed similar scripts. The star batters went on a rampage at the top, there was a middle order collapse in the 300s, and then the lower order persisted till the end. Sadly for Sri Lanka, a nerveless 49th over by Zaheer Khan broke their back as they ended up just short of a wild chase.

#19 A last-ball six…to tie

England 286-8 (J Buttler 93, C Wokes 95*) tied with Sri Lanka 286-9 (A Matthews 73)

1st ODI, Nottingham, June 21, 2016

A last ball six that ends up being forgotten? That is an epic level of meaninglessness. For our older readers, I was tempted to put up Asif Mujtaba’s lone hand against Australia a lifetime ago. But there was an equally fun example more recently, as first Buttler and then Chris Woakes rescued England against Sri Lanka. The visitors were celebrating on the penultimate ball but Liam Plunkett smashed a six to tie it.

#18 Stoinis makes it look easy

New Zealand 286-9 (N Broom 73, M Guptill 61) beat Australia 280-10 (M Stoinis 146*) by 6 runs

1st ODI, Auckland, January 30, 2017

This is one of those games where Australia broke me - it truly felt like anyone in a yellow cricket kit could choose to become invincible at any point, and there was nothing the rest of us could do about it. Australia were 67-6 at one point, and only one batter scored over 30. It mattered little to Marcus Stoinis, who rampaged an unbeaten 146 to guide his team within six runs of New Zealand’s total. He monopolised the strike, hitting 54 in partnership with No.11 Josh Hazlewood, who didn’t face a ball. Then disaster struck. Kane Williamson stationed himself almost on the pitch to save the single. Hazlewood set off anyway. And a direct hit sealed a Blackcaps victory.

#17 A Bevan masterclass

Australia 173-9 (M Bevan 78) beat West Indies 172-9 (C Hooper 93, P Reiffel 4-29) by 1 wicket (0 balls remaining)

5th ODI, Sydney, January 1, 1996

Michael Bevan was like one of those artists whose greatest work came well ahead of its time, before people could truly appreciate the nuances of what he was doing. A get-out-of-jail-free card for Australia in the lower order, this match was a classic example. The West Indies seemed to be routing the Aussies when they had them at 38-6, only for Bevan to rally the tail around for a nerveless chase before smashing a four off the last ball to win it.

#16 Buttler as Batman

England 208-9 (J Buttler 110*) beat Australia 205-10 (T Head 56, M Ali 4-46) by 1 wicket (with 9 balls remaining)

5th ODI, Manchester, June 24, 2018

This match ensured a 5-0 series rout of Australia, but at least this game was close. Australia had felt extremely careless as they got all out within 35 overs, yet England collapsed spectacularly as well to leave a rather impossible chase. But with Jos Buttler as Batman and Adil Rashid as Robin, the comeback was on. Local hero Buttler survived the late loss of Rahid as the hosts pulled off an audacious victory.

#15 A chaotic tie

West Indies 244-5 (D Haynes 82, C Hooper 69*) tied with Pakistan 244-6 (I ul Haq 53)

5th ODI, Georgetown, April 3, 1993

With the memories of their epic series from the 1980s still fresh, the West Indies and Pakistan served up a phenomenal run of ODIs and Test matches. The hosts ran up a 2-0 lead in the five-match series, before the defending world champions clawed it back to 2-2. Both Carl Hooper and Desmond Haynes seemed to have the chase under control, but a late wobble took the match to the final over, and then the final ball. The West Indies seemed to have gotten the two runs they needed for a win, but a crowd invasion meant that the match referee was compelled to declare the match, and therefore the series, as a tie.

#14 Ross Taylor rampages England

New Zealand 339-5 (R Taylor 181*) beat England 335-9 (J Bairstow 138, J Root 102) by 5 wickets (with 3 balls remaining)

4th ODI, Dunedin, March 7 2018

Losing both openers for ducks in a huge chase should generally be the end of things, but Ross Taylor had other ideas in mind. An absolutely brutal and unbeaten score of 181 followed, which was made more impressive by the fact that Taylor was injured after reaching his century. He was aided by some late-order hitting as the Kiwis pulled off a stunning chase.

#13 The Razzler’s last stand

Pakistan 289-9 (A Razzaq 109*) beat South Africa 286-8 (C Ingram 100) by 1 wicket (with 1 ball remaining)

2nd ODI, Abu Dhabi, October 31, 2010

There were a couple of options for an epic and meaningless Pakistan-South Africa game. The most recent one was Fakhar Zaman’s incredible lone hand of 193 in an innings where the team extras (25) were the third highest scorers. But I have to go with Abdul Razzaq’s blitzkrieg instead. He came in when the match seemed lost, and his exploits felt purely academic for most of the chase. But he kept smashing sixes for fun, and his ninth and tenth ones took his team to a win with a ball to spare.

#12 New Zealand’s Mac attack

New Zealand 350-9 (C McMillan 117, B McCullum 86*) beat Australia 346-5 (M Hayden 181*) by 1 wicket (with 3 balls remaining)

3rd ODI, Hamilton, February 20, 2007

Matthew Hayden was a singularly demoralising figure. Often seeming broader than the entire pitch, he looked like an adult playing with kids at his most imperious. That’s certainly how it felt in this game as he scored 181* and the hosts meekly collapsed to 46-4. But Craig McMillan and Brendon McCullum decided to bully the bully, and roared back into the game. McMillan got the century but it was Baz who was left with the tail to shepherd a tense chase home.

#11 Dougie scoops his way to victory

Zimbabwe 277-9 (D Marillier 56*, A Campbell 84, Z Khan 4-47) beat India 274-6 (VVS Laxman 75, S Ganguly 57) by 1 wicket (with 2 balls remaining)

1st ODI, Faridabad, March 7, 2002

You know it’s an obscure game when it can be referred to as the Dougie Marillier game. The little-known creator of the scoop shot, this was a signature innings. Zimbabwe looked dead in the water when Marillier came out, and launched a stunning assault with 56* off 24, with several boundaries off his unpatented scoop shot. You wish there were better marketers for this innings though - one match report described the hugely influential invention as “the Dougie shot”.

#10 200 In a losing cause

Sri Lanka 430-8 (P Rathnayake 130, D Shanaka 97, A Fernando 97) beat England 429-4 (H Brook 202) by 2 wickets (with 1 ball left)

3rd Match, Rawalpindi, October 22, 2026

The match that inspired this article, and a hugely deserving addition to the list. Harry Brook continued his love affair with batting in Pakistan for his best ODI innings yet, and Sri Lanka’s woeful recent form did not suggest that the ‘Pindi crowd was in for a classic. Yet the chasing side batted with utmost belief, as each departing batter was replaced by one just as belligerent. There was a hundred and two 97s, but Janith Liyanage’s 61 off 27 at the death might have been the best effort.

#9 Malinga and Mathews magic

Sri Lanka 243-9 (A Mathews 77*, L Malinga 56, X Doherty 4-46) beat Australia 239-8 (M Hussey 71, T Perera 5-46) by 1 wicket (with 34 balls remaining)

1st ODI, Melbourne, November 3, 2010

Many of the matches on this list are the cricket version of the Undertaker GIF, as a team rose from the dead. Sri Lanka were 107-8 chasing 243, but then Angelo Mathews found a mainstay in Lasith Malinga as the Lankan Lions put together the highest ninth-wicket partnership in ODIs at that point. Pleasingly, it was also Australia’s sixth consecutive defeat in ODIs.

#8 Salim Malik’s lone hand

Pakistan 241-8 (S Malik 72, R Shastri 4-38) beat India 238-6 (K Srikkanth 123) by 2 wickets (with 3 balls remaining, 40 overs match)

2nd ODI, Kolkata, February 18, 1987

During the ‘90s, Salim Malik was known by unscrupulous fans like myself as Salim Satta, with the suffix being a slang for fixer. Whenever I did make such a comment, an older fan would inevitably point to this game as proof of his greatness. Not only did Salim’s 72 (36) help pull off a chase that was around eight an over when he entered, but he played this entire epic with a broken arm. Not many better ways to stun your archrivals at home.

#7 A Scottish stunner

Scotland 371-5 (C MacLeod 140*, G Munsey 55) beat England 365-10 (J Bairstow 105) by 6 runs

Only ODI, Edinburgh, June 10, 2018

I must admit that the first time I saw this scorecard, it felt riddled with typos. Scotland amassed a massive 371 against a solid bowling attack, thanks to Calum MacLeod’s stunning 141. The hosts then sparked a middle-order collapse when the world no.1 ranked side seemed to be cruising. Liam Plunkett and Moeen Ali wrested back control of the game, but the Scots held their nerves to eke out a famous win.

#6 Heeeeere’s Kohli

India 321-3 (V Kohli 133, G Gambhir 63) beat Sri Lanka 320-4 (T Dilshan 160, K Sangakkara 105) by 7 wickets (with 80 balls remaining)

11th Match, Hobart, February 28, 2012

It's hard to find meaningless games for a player as semiotically rich as Virat Kohli, but we have a couple of shouts. You could go with his insane 183 in a huge chase against one of his favourite victims, Pakistan. But instead I’ve gone with his epic century as India chased down 321 in 37 overs to keep their hopes of qualifying for the tri-series final alive.. It was one of the first great Kohli chases, and like all of them, this went from impossible to improbable to imminently over very quickly.

#5 Desert Storm

Australia 284-7 (M Bevan 101, M Waugh 81) beat India 250-5 (S Tendulkar 143) by 26 runs (revised target)

6th Match, Sharjah, April 22, 1998

To get an idea of how impactful this game was, consider that it has a nickname despite the fact that the team it celebrates lost the match. Michael Bevan scored a hundred in a quintessentially Bevan innings, and only one scored more than 35 for a woeful Indian side. But some obscure batter from Mumbai went absolutely berserk, manhandling the Australians by himself, and doing enough to secure passage to the final despite defeat. Arguably the second-biggest star of the night was an actual desert storm, which briefly seemed to be the only thing that could stop Sachin Tendulkar that night.

#4 A last-ball six that wasn’t

India 349-7 (R Dravid 99, V Sehwag 79) beat Pakistan 344-8 (I ul Haq 122) by 5 runs

1st ODI, Karachi, March 13, 2004

I am not being facetious when I say that I had a spiritual experience watching this game from the stands. The first match in a relentlessly hyped, and eventually unforgettable tour, India seemed to have run away with the game thanks to a Rahul Dravid 99. Pakistan were never out of the chase but never totally in it either until the final ten overs began. The National Stadium was absolutely heaving in a fantastically tense finish, until Moin Khan failed to hit a six needed off the last ball.

#3 The Yuvi-Kaif game, aka the 'shirtless Ganguly' game

India 326-8 (M Kaif 87*, Y Singh 69) beat England 325-5 (N Hussain 115, M Trescothick 109) by 2 wickets (with 3 balls remaining)

Final, Lord’s, July 13, 2002

There are two types of people in the world - those who call this the Yuvi-Kaif game, and those that call it the shirtless Ganguly game. Nasser Hussain made a century and stuck three fingers that may as well have been one finger up at the press box. India looked done and dusted chasing a massive total, but then Yuvraj and Kaif defined the template for ODI chases. A match where the past of Indian cricket gave away to its future.

#2 Miandad’s last-ball six

Pakistan 248-9 (J Miandad 116*) beat India 245-7 (S Gavaskar 92) by one wicket with 0 balls remaining

Final, Sharjah, April 18, 1986

It is a bit of a cheat code to include this match in the list, given that it happened in a now forgotten tournament, and more importantly that it was one of the most meaningful games in Pakistan’s history. It launched a golden age of Pakistan cricket and also solidified Sharjah as the new heart of cricket. As for the match itself, world champions India had seen their star batters shine as they put on a big total. In reply, it was only Miandad’s century that held together a flailing chase, as no one else crossed 34. Needing four off the last ball, he dispatched a full toss by Chetan Sharma somewhere between midwicket and infinity.

#1 The 438 game

South Africa 438-9 (H Gibbs 175, N Bracken 5-67) beat Australia 434-4 (R Ponting 165) by one wicket with one ball remaining

5th ODI, Wanderers, March 12, 2006

When Australia scored 434 in their first innings, it felt like watching something perverse and unseemly. It was the first time that 400 had been breached, and it felt like an absolute annihilation of South Africa. However, Jacques Kallis famously announced in the dressing room that Australia were 15 runs short. Perhaps shocked by the taciturn Kallis making jokes, a hungover Herschelle Gibbs led the most unbelievable chase in ODI history. A late wobble meant the match was tense right till the end, when Mark Boucher, in the company of genuine tail-ender Makhaya Ntini, squeaked the winning runs.

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