Best ending to a game

[tooextracool]

beacuse in any tournament of pretty much any sport, the good teams win the games they need to win..Australia did enough to get to the finals...SA couldnt hold on to a 1-0 lead in those finals..SA got whipped good and proper in the second and were beaten in a close-ish game in the third (Australia did play better though)..so there you go...all three teams knew the rules, the finals hold more weight than the qualifiers,Australia win...when it counted,Australia were the better team.
End Of Story

australia were certainly not the better team in that period, if you look at their head to head record at the time you'll see exactly what i mean. they just won the important games- wc semi finals, tournament finals etc.

 

[hindsy]

for me it would be... Aus vs. WI 96'.... Harper to Bevan - last ball - 4 to win - 4 over the bowlers head...

 

[Swervy]

australia were certainly not the better team in that period, if you look at their head to head record at the time you'll see exactly what i mean. they just won the important games- wc semi finals, tournament finals etc.

I appreciate the fact that SA may well have been the superior team..but for me it counts for nothing if you cant win games that are important.

England and NZ were the best teams at World Cup 91, but who really remembers that. Pakistan were lucky to progress, and yet won the games that were important..they wee World Champs.

Australia started slowly in the 99 WC,and didnt look too hot...but they won when it was needed..and thoroughly deserved the WC, no matter how poor they looked early on.

Richards point was whether Australia deserved that tourny win vs SA...the answer is YES, because Australia won when they had to..SA blew it..great teams tend not to blow the big event, SA have always had the habit of blowing the big games, hence cant be called a great team...they were chokers...Australia werent.

 

[chekmeout]

i do not quite remember the details of the game .. it was an india - pakistan match.. the final of a triangular tournament i think... pakistan batted first and made 314... at that time india needed 315 which was the highest ever score batting 2nd to win a game... the achieved it in dramatic fashion with 41 from tendulkar, 100 odd from ganguly, 80 odd from robin singh.. it went right down to the wire... the light soon started fading.. and india were playing in substandard football (soccer) lights in dhaka i think.. it was very dark out there but the indian batsmen kept playing and whacking the ball as they would lose by D/L.. very memorable match indeed

 

[Scaly piscine]

Not one of the best endings but one I remember well was when India chased 256 in the last game in a ODI series (usually these series are meaningless, but this one had a bit of needle in it and both sides were fired up). India were cruising to victory in the last game where they were 3-2 up, needing around 5 an over India were 191-3 with over 13 overs left when Ganguly was bowled, then somehow India kept losing wickets and the run rate kept going up, they kept cutting on the TV to Ganguly (who I hate with a passion) who was looking more and more frazzled as it went along. It went down to the last over with Flintoff bowling - 6 runs off 3 balls for India to win, 5 to tie, 2 wickets left. Flintoff ran Kumble out with no runs added then with 2 balls left he yorked Srinath and took his shirt off, swung it around and charged about like a prima donna footballer. The look on Ganguly's face with his head in his hands was an absolute classic.

 

[Richard]

Even better when Ganguly smashed Flintoff all over Lord's the next summer to set-up an even more memorable win.

 

[Richard]

I appreciate the fact that SA may well have been the superior team..but for me it counts for nothing if you cant win games that are important.

England and NZ were the best teams at World Cup 91, but who really remembers that. Pakistan were lucky to progress, and yet won the games that were important..they wee World Champs.

Australia started slowly in the 99 WC,and didnt look too hot...but they won when it was needed..and thoroughly deserved the WC, no matter how poor they looked early on.

Richards point was whether Australia deserved that tourny win vs SA...the answer is YES, because Australia won when they had to..SA blew it..great teams tend not to blow the big event, SA have always had the habit of blowing the big games, hence cant be called a great team...they were chokers...Australia werent.

My point was that over the tournament SA were the better side.
Whether Aus happened to win the finals is not really of consequence, the only ODI tournament where the result really REALLY matters is the World Cup.
The fact that SA were chokers does not, by the way, mean that Aus were better than them. One team choking says something about the choking team only - not anyone else.