After the advent of T20 cricket, the balance of cricket has shifted massively in the favor of batsmen. Big bats, small boundaries, aggressive mindset and fielding restriction & powerplays; the game of cricket is slowly becoming more of a “batsman’s game”.

These days, scoring 300 runs in an ODI match is no big deal. In fact, chasing 300 has become  a joke. India’s fast bowler Ishant Sharma recently said on a Television show that the way batsmen are scoring runs, bowlers will be soon replaced by bowling machines. Although, Ishant said it in a comedy show, he very briefly defined how difficult the game has become for the bowlers in limited-overs cricket.

There was a time when 300 used to be a very big score and teams used to be sure of a win after scoring 300. But now, the game has changed. Forget about the entire team, an individual scores 264 runs in a 50 overs match. In the last 4 years, we have seen 4 double centuries in ODI cricket.

READ: Rohit Sharma becomes the first batsman to score two double hundreds in ODI cricket

In this article, we will have a look at all those occasions where a bowler has defended six or fewer runs in the last over in a One Day International (ODI) match.

The table below contains the occasions when the team defended six or fewer number of runs to win the ODI.

To defend	Win by	Target	Final Total	Bowler	For	Against	Venue	Year
2	1	194	193 (50)	Chris Pringle	New Zealand	Australia	Hobart	1990
2	1	231	230 (50)	Glenn Maxwell	Australia	Pakistan	Abu Dhabi	2014
4	2	221	218 (49)	Imran Khan	Pakistan	Australia	Sydney	1990
5	1	212	211 (49.2)	Manoj Prabhakar	India	Sri Lanka	Colombo	1993
5	4	159	154 (49.1)	Chris Cairns	New Zealand	West Indies	Bourda	1996
5	3	196	192 (49.5)	Chris Gayle	West Indies	England	Trent Bridge	2000
6	2	250	247 (54.5)	Dennis Lillee	Australia	England	Edgbaston	1981
6	3	243	239 (49.4)	Stephen Boock	New Zealand	Zimbabwe	Hyderabad	1987
6	1	271	269 (49.5)	Steve Waugh	Australia	India	Chepauk	1987
6	1	221	218/9 (49)	Curtly Ambrose	West Indies	Australia	SCG	1988
6	2	197	194/9 (50)	Winston Davis	West Indies	India	Motera	1988
6	2	196	193/9 (50)	Sachin Tendulkar	India	South Africa	Eden Gardens	1993
6	1	204	202/8 (50)	Damien Fleming	Australia	South Africa	Bloemfontein	1994
6	5	290	284 (49.1)	Sachin Tendulkar	India	Australia	Mohali	1996
6	5	230	224 (49.3)	Brett Lee	Australia	England	MCG	2003
6	2	323	320 (49.5)	Mick Lewis	Australia	England	Wellington	2005

Interestingly, India’s star batsman Sachin Tendulkar features twice in this list. Recently, Australia’s all-rounder Glen Maxwell defended 2 runs against Pakistan in UAE.

If you have a closer look, the last time a bowler defended six or fewer runs before Glenn Maxwell’s performance in the UAE, was way back in 2005 when Australia’s Mick Lewis defended 6 runs against England in 2005. Australia won that match by 2 runs.

This list isn’t that long and considering the way cricket is played these days, there will not be many more entries in this list.

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By The Cricket Lounge