One-day internationals have produced some of the game’s greatest matches but context is key for a sustainable future

What do you think is the greatest cricket match of all time? Perhaps you’d like to offer a Test that spanned all five days and reached a crescendo in the final session. Or maybe the contest that really grabbed you was a pyrotechnic-laden T20. There’s no wrong answer here, but I’m willing to bet a tenner on the hunch that most people reading this would pick a 50-over classic.

Which one tops them all? There’s the World Cup final at Lord’s in 2019 where New Zealand nurdled their way to a competitive score before Ben Stokes – with a bit of help from Trent Boult’s right heel and the wrong side of his GM bat – levelled the scores to set up a super-over victory by the barest of margins. In 2006 Ricky Ponting’s 164 pulverised South Africa at the Wanderers to steer Australia to a record total of 434, only to watch Herschelle Gibbs clobber 175 as the Proteas chased their target down with a ball to spare. That triumph, lovingly dubbed the ‘438 game’ by South Africans, partially made up for the tied World Cup semi-final in Birmingham seven years earlier, itself a contender for the most thrilling game in the sport’s entire history.