Top three match-winning innings by a tail-ender

A match-winning inning by a tail-ender is something that you don’t expect every day but whenever these things happen, they remain in the hearts and minds of cricket fans forever. Most of the time the job of a tail-ender is to just survive and stay along with the main batter and not lose their wicket.

But there are times, tail-enders change the game with the help of their batting ability. Unless you’re the one on the receiving end, people enjoy watching the tail wag and the tail-enders scoring. Lower-order batters have historically produced some truly outstanding and noteworthy innings in international cricket.

Taking a look at the top three match-winning innings by a tail-ender

1) Brett Lee vs England, 2006

Brett Lee was always seen as the fearsome fast bowler who goes for the throats of the batters and the speed at which he used to bowl was astounding. He was a handy batter as well and would score a handful of runs lower down the order.

With a quick-fire half-century against England in 2006, the Aussie pacer helped Australia reach its goal. Facing bowlers like Steve Harmison, Andrew Flintoff, and Ashley Giles can be traumatising but not for Lee, who has made a few contributions with the bat and scored a half-century. Aussie supporters and Brett Lee will remember this victory because they won the match because of the fast bowler’s valuable contribution to the game.

2) Zaheer Khan vs Bangladesh, 2004

In his career, Zaheer Khan has always been labelled as a brilliant number 10 batter for India and has amassed three half-centuries.

In a test match at Dhaka, he had his best innings, scoring 75 as part of an amazing 148-run partnership with Sachin Tendulkar. The final few runs of Zaheer’s innings were important game-changing runs that enabled India to mount an incredible comeback.

3) Ravi Rampaul vs India, 2011

Ravi Rampaul was a great tail-ender as he scored a fair few runs when coming lower than the order. Rampaul helped the West Indies reach a competitive 269 in their 50 overs after they had lost 8 wickets in 31 overs with his incredible 86 off just 72 balls.

They all appeared destined to be bowled out quickly, but Rampaul saved the best performance for last, causing India significant issues while also managing to stay undefeated.