7 greatest finishers in ODIs

Some ODIs go down the wire, like they were scripted to give the gods some thrill. These need nothingless than extraordinary performances from cricketing gods to pull off. ODI heists usually reveal nerves ofsteel and unflinching courage to take all the right calls on the ground. Every team therefore, bets big onfinishers, cricketers who come to the party in crunch situations. These are the cricketers that teams relyto have their back, cricketers who never shy away from a scrap or dogfight.But, how do you pick the top finishers of all time in ODIs? Are these the guys, who have stacked upthe notouts over the years, making sure, they are there taking the team over the line. Are these theguys who have super-human averages? Are these the batsmen who have scored a lot of runs in chasesor with tailenders? The answer though comes as a combination. However, since finishing is a nichebusiness, the author has given more priority to not-outs as opposed to averages in wins, which are lowerfor Steve Waugh and Boucher, although their innings are worth their weight in gold. Mind you, we areleaving out players like Virat Kohliand AB de Villiers out of the list, although they have allthe makings of owning this list half a decade from now.

#7 Mark Boucher

Mark Boucher was the steel-nerved finisher of that epic ODI. A wicket-keeper, who comes at No.7, has 46 not-outs in wins with a strike-rate of 116 – you’ll take that any day unless you have Dhoni himself. Boucher has long been the hammer and anvil batsman in the South African lower order, capable of seeing his crumbling team through. He would have been remembered with a lot more fondness had he ran a single against Murali after tonking that casual six, in the match where South Africa finally understood how to read D/L charts. Lance Klusener is another teammate of Boucher, who is just edged out, in spite of his sensational showing in the 1999 World Cup in particular.