The Best of 2017: Best ODI of the year

Once again ODI cricket was at its best in the year 2017 with ICC Champions Trophy 2017 taking the centre of attraction. With a month and a half of superlative action, the cricket fans had an absolute treat watching those nail-biting contests. The action continued in the latter half of the year with bilateral series contests amongst various teams.

This year gave us an opportunity to turn the thoughts into actions by proving, that cricket is a game of bat and ball and team which plays better on the given day win. Gone are the days when the contest between Australia and Bangladesh was expected to fall in mighty Australia’s pocket. The teams have been able to notch their game standards to a higher echelon and have improved drastically.

In terms of the action on the 22 yards, where some teams mastered the art of scoring over 300 runs, the other teams helped their side to cross the winning line with lethal bowling skills. In all, 2017 changed the perspective of the game. With so many match-winning performances and nail-biting encounters which went all down to the wire, we have picked the Best ODI of the year which had hunger, aggression, calmness, self-assessment and much more in it.

Here we have picked the Group Stage match between New Zealand and Bangladesh in ICC Champions Trophy held at Cardiff this summer.

With New Zealand finishing ICC World Cup 2015 as runner-ups, no one would have ever thought that two years down the line this team will be ousted from the tournament in the league stages. On the other hand, Bangladesh came into the tournament as underdogs and finished the tournament as the semi-finalist.

In last year and a half, the Bangladesh team has grown in confidence. Their dream stint started in the year 2015 when they ousted England from the World Cup and made their way to the quarter-finals. They continued to impress everyone with their spectacular performances at home beating top teams like India and South Africa.

But even then Bangladeshi players weren’t expected to pose a threat to New Zealand but they proved their critics wrong by putting up a match-winning fightback.

Coin flipped in Williamson’s favour

The coin flipped in Kane Williamson‘s favour. Chasing in a must-win game has never been an easy task, so the skipper asked the opposition to bowl first. The Cardiff wicket had something in it for the bowlers at the start as the ball was moving away from the right-handers and coming back into the left-handers.

For New Zealand, it was Martin Guptill and Luke Ronchi who started the proceedings. In a fifty-over encounter, it’s always important to get the base ready which eventually would help the coming batsman make a paradigm shift. Unfortunately, Ronchi, who is known for his power hitting ability was departed for a score of 16 and couldn’t do justice to his role.

His wicket invited the skipper to the crease who tried to create a partnership but it didn’t last long. Guptill went on to play away from his body as he was expecting the ball to move away from him, but Rubel Hossain produced an absolute ripper of an inswinger and Guptill had no answers.

With less than 70 runs on the board, the Kiwis lost both the openers and the responsibility was now on skipper Williamson who was accompanied by the experienced campaigner Ross Taylor. The duo managed to put up a partnership of 83 runs before Williamson got out. His departure killed New Zealand’s scoring run rate as it became difficult for the incoming batsmen to rotate the strike and keep the scoreboard moving.

The Black Caps were on the back foot and that forced them to play fancy shots which eventually cost them wickets and they managed to score just 265 runs in their quota of 50 overs.

A disastrous start for Bangladesh

For Bangladesh, in walked the reliable Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar. The duo was expected to do the job for their team one more time and help themselves make a way into the semi-finals. However, the thought didn’t turn into action as both the openers were sent back in mere three overs putting New Zealand in an advantageous position once again.

The worry for Bangladesh continued as the number three batsman departed for a single digit score. The experienced campaigner, wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim tried to play with some responsibility but his stint didn’t last long as his middle stump was knocked off by the speedster Adam Milne.

Chasing a total of 265, the Bangladeshis was already four down for mere 33 runs on the board. With Trent Boult and Milne extracting bounce from a docile track, the situation became all the more difficult for Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah.

However, the Tigers survived the crushing phase and started to dominate the ball once they got their eyes in. The duo put up a partnership of 224 runs which was nothing short of phenomenal. Both Shakib and Mahmudullah scored hundreds. After a brilliant hundred, the veteran departed, however, the damage was done and Mahmudullah with Mosaddek Hossain did the formality to pocket the game.

This encounter will go down as one of the greatest matches ever happened in the history of the sport as it was a mixture of emotions, test of skills, determination, and appetite to win.

Brief Score

New Zealand- 265/8 in 50 overs (Ross Taylor 63, Kane Williamson 57)

Bangladesh- 268/5 in 47.2 overs (Shakib Al Hasan 114, Mahmudullah 102*)