Top 10 greatest ODI cricket matches of all time

#1. England vs New Zealand - Final, ICC Cricket World Cup at Lord's (14 July 2019)

England won their maiden World Cup in the most dramatic circumstances

Was there any doubt about the number one spot? It was not only the drama of the match but also the gravity of the situation that makes this match the greatest ODI of all time.

New Zealand and England had the opportunity to win their maiden World Cup and the Kiwis won the toss and elected to bat first. They scored 241 runs in their 50 overs but defending a low total against the might of the English batting was going to be a tough task.

England lost Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root and captain Eoin Morgan with only 86 runs on the board and nearly 27 overs left to play. New Zealand had the upper hand but Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler put on a 110-run partnership for the fifth wicket to swing the game in England’s favour.

Stoke was still going strong but wickets fell around him. In the penultimate over of the match, Stokes tried to hit a six over midwicket only to find Trent Boult, however, before he could relay the ball to Martin Guptill, he stepped on the boundary line to concede a six. However, in the final over, England still needed 15 runs.

Stokes did not take a run off the first two balls to keep the strike and hit a six off the third ball. In the fourth ball, he hit a full toss to deep midwicket and called for two but Guptill’s throw deflected off a diving Stokes’ bat and went to the boundary.

England needed three off the last two balls and tried to get two runs off each ball only for the non-striker to be run out on both occasions which resulted in a tied match. The game had to be decided in a super over but both teams scored 15 runs each and as a result, England were crowned World Champions because they scored more boundaries in the 50 overs.

The defeat was hard for the Kiwis to take and they must be ruing their luck. Interestingly, the man of the match, Ben Stokes, was born in New Zealand and moved to England at a young age because his father, a former Black Caps rugby player, was appointed head coach of Workington Town rugby league club.

After the game, five-time ICC Umpire of the Year award winner, Simon Taufel revealed that the umpires made a mistake in awarding six runs to England for the overthrow off Stokes’ bat. Despite this, the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup final will go down in history as the greatest ODI match of all time.