The 10 Greatest ODI Partnerships, Ranked Research
How the ranking works
Four parameters, in this order, applied to every ODI partnership ever played:
- The situation at arrival. The score, the wickets down, the target or the total, and the stakes: a World Cup final is not a bilateral dead rubber. A stand that begins at 107 for 8 chasing 240 carries more weight than one that begins at 0 for 0.
- The swing. How far the stand moved the match: from how likely defeat looked when the pair came together to how certain victory looked when they parted.
- The opposition, the bowling, and the tournament. Runs against Australia's attack, or in a World Cup final, count more than runs against a weakened side in a decided series.
- The result. All eleven won their matches. Nothing here comes from a lost cause.
This is a subjective ranking. The parameters are disclosed in full above so the reader can disagree with the order on the same evidence. That disagreements will happen is not a flaw in the method; it is the method.
| Impact rank | Partnership (runs) | Situation at start | Match result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kapil/Kirmani (126*) | 140/8, had been 17/5 | Won by 31 |
| 2 | Mathews/Malinga (132) | 107/8, chasing 240 | Won by 1 wkt |
| 3 | Gambhir/Dhoni (109) | 114/3, chasing 275, WC final | Won by 6 wkts |
| 4 | Stokes/Buttler (110) | 86/4, chasing 242, WC final | Tied, won Super Over |
| 5= | Smith/Gibbs (187) | 3/1, chasing 435 | Won by 1 wkt |
| 5= | Boucher's closing stands (50*) | 327/5 onward, chasing 435 | Won by 1 wkt |
| 6 | Jayasuriya/Tharanga (286) | Chasing 322 | Won by 8 wkts |
| 7 | Kemp/Hall (138*) | 136/7 | Won by 106 |
| 8 | de Kock/Amla (282*) | Chasing 279 | Won by 10 wkts |
| 9 | Waugh/Ponting (126) | 48/3, chasing 272, WC | Won by 5 wkts |
| 10 | Elliott/Ronchi (267*) | 93/5 | Won by 108 |
| Hon. | Azharuddin/Jadeja (275*) | 26/3 | Won by 32 |
Seven chases and three first-innings rescues in the ten places, plus a fourth rescue as the honorary mention; four World Cups, two of them finals. Fifth place is shared jointly by the two stands that hunted down 435 at Johannesburg in 2006.
The ranking, from 10 to 1
Honorary Mention: Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja, 275 not out, India v Zimbabwe, Cuttack, 1998
The situation: the fifth match of a triangular series at the Barabati Stadium, India 8 for 2 in the opening overs, Tendulkar gone for 1 and Laxman for a duck. Ganguly fell for 13 and India were 26 for 3 against Zimbabwe. Azharuddin and Jadeja then batted through the rest of the innings: 275 not out for the fourth wicket, a world record for the wicket at the time, Azharuddin 153 not out off 150 balls, Jadeja 116 not out off 121. India finished on 301 for 3, and though Grant Flower made 102 in reply, Zimbabwe were bowled out for 269; India won by 32 runs. It is the least pressured stand in this list by tournament weight, a tri-series group game, and it misses the ten for exactly that reason. But 26 for 3 to 301 for 3, unbroken, is the shape of every rescue in it: the template, played first.
No. 10: Grant Elliott and Luke Ronchi, 267 not out, New Zealand v Sri Lanka, Dunedin, 2015
The situation: the fifth ODI of a bilateral series at the University Oval, New Zealand 93 for 5 after 20 overs against Sri Lanka. Ronchi, in his 35th ODI, joined Elliott. What followed was the world-record sixth-wicket stand: 267 not out, Ronchi 170 not out off 99 balls, his maiden ODI hundred, with 14 fours and nine sixes, Elliott 104 not out off 96. New Zealand finished on 360 for 5, and Sri Lanka, despite Tillakaratne Dilshan's 116, were bowled out for 252; New Zealand won by 108 runs. A bilateral series record stand, which is why it cannot climb higher. But 267 unbroken from 93 for 5 remains the biggest sixth-wicket rescue the format has seen.
No. 9: Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting, 126, Australia v South Africa, Headingley, 1999
The situation: a World Cup Super Six game Australia had to win, having carried no points through. South Africa made 271 for 7, Herschelle Gibbs making 101. Australia lost Gilchrist, Mark Waugh and Martyn for 48 for 3. Then Waugh and Ponting added 126 for the fourth wicket, Waugh 120 not out off 110 balls, Ponting 69 off 110, taking Australia from 48 for 3 to 174 for 4. The innings turned on one moment: Waugh, on 56, skied to midwicket where Gibbs dropped him. Australia reached 272 for 5 in 49.4 overs and won by five wickets. Four days later came the tied semi-final; three days after that, the title. The stand ranks ninth because it was only 126 runs and the chase never reached the final over. It is here because of what it unlocked: without it, there is no 1999 triumph.
No. 8: Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla, 282 not out, South Africa v Bangladesh, Kimberley, 2017
The situation: the first ODI of the series at the Diamond Oval, Bangladesh 278 for 7, Mushfiqur Rahim 110 not out, their highest ODI score against South Africa. De Kock and Amla opened the chase and were never separated: 282 not out for the first wicket, de Kock 168 not out off 145 balls, Amla 110 not out off 112, South Africa 282 for 0 in 42.5 overs, won by ten wickets. It is the highest successful ODI chase completed without losing a wicket, a mark a CricTracker records round-up confirmed as standing in 2020. An opening stand begins at 0 for 0, which is why it sits eighth: no wickets down means no hole to climb out of. But 282 unbroken, every run dragging the required rate down with no safety net, finished by the pair themselves, is the most complete chase ever played.
No. 7: Justin Kemp and Andrew Hall, 138 not out, South Africa v India, Cape Town, 2006
The situation: the third ODI at Newlands, South Africa 136 for 7 against India, Shaun Pollock just run out for 33. Kemp and Hall then added 138 not out for the eighth wicket, a world record for the wicket at the time: Kemp 100 not out off 89 balls, his maiden ODI hundred, with seven sixes, Hall 56 not out off 47. South Africa finished on 274 for 7, and India, despite fifties from Dravid and Dhoni, were bowled out for 168; South Africa won by 106 runs. First-innings stands usually rank low on this list, and this one does not: it began at 136 for 7, which is a second-innings score wearing a first-innings disguise.
No. 6: Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga, 286, Sri Lanka v England, Headingley, 2006
The situation: the fifth ODI at Headingley, England 321 for 7, Marcus Trescothick 121. In 2006, 322 was a mountain. Jayasuriya and Tharanga climbed it in 201 balls: 286 for the first wicket, then a world-record ODI opening stand, Jayasuriya 152 off 99 balls, Tharanga 109 off 102, scored at 8.54 an over. Sri Lanka reached 324 for 2 with 75 balls to spare and won by eight wickets, completing a 5-0 whitewash. Every other chase in this list was a rescue. This one was a detonation: the first ten overs of the chase brought 133, and the series ended in humiliation. The biggest opening stand in a successful chase the format had seen.
No. 5, joint: Smith and Gibbs's 187 and Boucher's closing stands, South Africa v Australia, Johannesburg, 2006
The situation: the fifth ODI at the Wanderers, the series level at 2-2, Australia 434 for 4, the first 400-plus total in ODI history, Ricky Ponting 164 off 105. South Africa lost Boeta Dippenaar for 1 in the second over. Then came the platform: Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs added 187 for the second wicket in 127 balls, Smith 90 off 55, Gibbs 175 off 111, scored at nearly nine an over, holding the required rate from the very start instead of letting it grow. Gibbs added 94 more with AB de Villiers, and at 284 for 3 in the 31st over the chase was alive.
Then came the finish. Wickets fell at 299, 327, 355, 399, 423 and 433, and Mark Boucher, who finished 50 not out off 43 balls, shepherded the innings home through five closing stands: 28 with Justin Kemp, 44 with Johan van der Wath, 24 with Roger Telemachus, 10 with Andrew Hall, and the last 5 unbroken with No. 11 Makhaya Ntini. Seven were needed off the final over. Hall hit a four and was caught going for another at 433 for 9. Ntini nudged a single to tie the scores, and Boucher hit Brett Lee for four with a ball to spare. South Africa 438 for 9, won by one wicket.
This place is shared because the chase needed both halves and neither half belongs to a single pair. The 187 is the biggest stand in the match and the most famous; the closing stands, none bigger than 44, actually finished the job. Together they hunted down 435 against the best side in the world, and no single pair could have done it alone.
No. 4: Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler, 110, England v New Zealand, Lord's, 2019
The situation: the World Cup final at Lord's, England chasing 242. At 86 for 4 in the 24th over, the hosts were sinking. Stokes and Buttler added 110 for the fifth wicket, Stokes 84 not out off 98 balls, Buttler 59 off 60, taking England from 86 for 4 to 196 for 5. Buttler fell with 46 still needed, and Stokes carried the tail through the most famous finish in ODI history: the deflected overthrow for six, 15 needed off the last over, the run-out attempting the winning second run, the tie, the Super Over tie, and the boundary countback, 26 to 17. England's first men's World Cup. The stand itself was only 110, and it did not finish the job alone, which keeps it fourth. But no partnership in this list was played for higher stakes, and none bent a final further.
No. 3: Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni, 109, India v Sri Lanka, Mumbai, 2011
The situation: the World Cup final at Wankhede Stadium, India chasing 275. Lasith Malinga had removed Sehwag for a duck and Tendulkar for 18; India were 31 for 2, and a billion people stopped breathing. Gambhir and Kohli steadied with 83, and when Kohli fell at 114 for 3, Dhoni promoted himself above the in-form Yuvraj Singh. Gambhir and Dhoni added 109 for the fourth wicket, Gambhir 97 off 122 balls, falling three short of a final hundred, Dhoni 91 not out off 79, finishing it with a six over long-on off Kulasekara. India 277 for 4 in 48.2 overs, won by six wickets, world champions after 28 years. The smallest stand in the top three by 17 runs. It does not matter. This is the stand that won a World Cup final from 31 for 2.
No. 2: Angelo Mathews and Lasith Malinga, 132, Sri Lanka v Australia, Melbourne, 2010
The situation: the first ODI at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Sri Lanka chasing 240 against Australia. At 107 for 8, the game was gone. Mathews and Malinga then produced the greatest ninth-wicket stand in ODI history: 132 off 110 balls, breaking Kapil Dev and Syed Kirmani's 126, Mathews 77 not out off 84, Malinga 56 off 48. Malinga was run out with the scores level; Muttiah Muralitharan hit the winning boundary off Shane Watson. Sri Lanka 243 for 9 in 44.2 overs, won by one wicket. From eight down to a one-wicket win over Australia: the deepest chase hole any pair here climbed out of, and the record it broke had stood for 27 years.
No. 1: Kapil Dev and Syed Kirmani, 126 not out, India v Zimbabwe, Tunbridge Wells, 1983
The situation: a World Cup group game India had to win, at the Nevill Ground. Zimbabwe reduced India to 17 for 5, then 78 for 7. Kapil Dev walked in at 9 for 4 and watched four partners come and go. When Madan Lal fell at 140 for 8, Kirmani joined him, and the two added 126 not out for the ninth wicket, then the ODI record: Kapil 175 not out off 138 balls, with 16 fours and six sixes, Kirmani 24 not out off 56. India finished on 266 for 8 in their 60 overs, and Zimbabwe were bowled out for 235; India won by 31 runs. There was no television coverage, the BBC was on strike, and the innings survives in scorebooks and memory. It kept India's campaign alive; seven days later they were world champions. From 17 for 5 in a World Cup, 175 not out, then the highest ODI score ever made: no partnership in one-day history has travelled further from defeat to victory. The greatest match-changing stand ever played in ODIs.
| Partnership | Runs | Impact rank | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jayasuriya/Tharanga | 286 | 6 | Chase of 322, Headingley 2006 |
| de Kock/Amla | 282* | 8 | Unbroken chase of 279, Kimberley 2017 |
| Azharuddin/Jadeja | 275* | Hon. | From 26/3, Cuttack 1998 |
| Elliott/Ronchi | 267* | 10 | From 93/5, Dunedin 2015 |
| Smith/Gibbs | 187 | 5 (joint) | From 3/1 chasing 435, Johannesburg 2006 |
| Kemp/Hall | 138* | 7 | From 136/7, Cape Town 2006 |
| Mathews/Malinga | 132 | 2 | 107/8 chasing 240, Melbourne 2010 |
| Kapil/Kirmani | 126* | 1 | From 17/5 in a World Cup, Tunbridge Wells 1983 |
| Waugh/Ponting | 126 | 9 | 48/3 chasing 272, Headingley 1999 |
| Stokes/Buttler | 110 | 4 | 86/4 in a World Cup final, Lord's 2019 |
| Gambhir/Dhoni | 109 | 3 | World Cup final chase of 275, Mumbai 2011 |
| Boucher's closing stands | 50* | 5 (joint) | Unbeaten 50 across five closing stands, Johannesburg 2006 |
Volume does not predict value: the two most match-changing stands are 126 not out and 132 runs.
The pattern
Read the ten places in order and the shape is obvious. Seven of the ten were chases, and six of those were won from positions where defeat looked certain: 107 for 8, 86 for 4, 48 for 3, 114 for 3, a 322-run mountain, and a 435-run mountain that came down to the final over. The other three were first-innings rescues from 17 for 5, 136 for 7 and 93 for 5, and the honorary mention adds a fourth from 26 for 3. Nobody here batted first from a position of strength. That is the whole point of the list: in 50-over cricket, a stand's worth is not in how many runs it contains but in how much of the match it had to win.
The second pattern is tournament weight. Four of the ten were played in World Cups: Tunbridge Wells 1983, Headingley 1999, Mumbai 2011, Lord's 2019. Two of those were finals. The two smallest stands in the top four, 109 and 110, are both World Cup final stands, and they outrank 286 and 282 not out because of where they were played. The record book has no column for stakes. This ranking is that column.
The near misses deserve their names:
- Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid's 331 at Hyderabad in 1999, the world record for fifteen years, was first-innings accumulation in a bilateral.
- Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid's 318 at Taunton in the 1999 World Cup, the first 300-stand in ODI history, came in a group game India were already winning.
- Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels's 372 at Canberra in 2015, the biggest of them all, never had to win anything after the second over.
Volume is the least interesting thing about a one-day partnership; the record book keeps the numbers, and this list keeps the matches.
| Year | Stand | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Kapil-Kirmani 126* | WC, won |
| 1998 | Azharuddin-Jadeja 275* | Won |
| 1999 | Waugh-Ponting 126 | WC, won |
| 2006 | Jayasuriya-Tharanga 286 | Chase, won |
| 2006 | Kemp-Hall 138* | Won |
| 2006 | Smith-Gibbs 187 / Boucher 50* | Chase of 435, won by 1 wkt |
| 2010 | Mathews-Malinga 132 | Chase, won by 1 wkt |
| 2011 | Gambhir-Dhoni 109 | WC final, won |
| 2015 | Elliott-Ronchi 267* | Won |
| 2017 | de Kock-Amla 282* | Chase, won |
| 2019 | Stokes-Buttler 110 | WC final, won |
From Tunbridge Wells 1983 to Lord's 2019: four World Cups and seven successful chases.
Methodology
The pool is every ODI partnership ever played, not the ten biggest by runs. Any stand, any wicket, any era was eligible; the only requirement was that it won its match. The parameters are disclosed in full above: the situation at arrival, the swing in match position, the quality of the opposition and bowling, the tournament weight, and the result.
Fifth place is shared jointly by the two partnerships that hunted down 435 at Johannesburg in 2006, Smith and Gibbs's 187 and Boucher's closing stands, which is why eleven partnerships fill ten ranked places. They are ranked as one because neither half of that chase belongs to a single pair.
For the record, the objective top ten by runs, which this ranking replaces, reads: 372 (Gayle/Samuels), 365 (Campbell/Hope), 331 (Tendulkar/Dravid), 318 (Ganguly/Dravid), 304 (Fakhar/Imam), 292 (Tamim/Litton), 290 (Kishan/Kohli), 286 (Jayasuriya/Tharanga), 284 (Warner/Head), 282 (Dilshan/Tharanga) and 282* (de Kock/Amla).
Counting conventions: partnership runs and scores are quoted as published in scorecards and record lists, not recomputed from ball-by-ball data. An asterisk marks a stand that was unbroken when the innings ended. All matches are men's ODIs.
The ranking itself is subjective and is stated as such. The parameters are disclosed in full above so the reader can disagree with the order on the same evidence. That disagreements will happen is not a flaw in the method; it is the method.
Figures computed from CricArcade's match archive with our own analysis scripts. Checked against the scorecards and edited by Vishal Jaiswal. Found a number that looks wrong? Tell us and we will check it against the scorecard.
Sources
- ESPNcricinfo full scorecard, India v Zimbabwe, 20th Match, Prudential World Cup, Tunbridge Wells, 18 June 1983 (Kapil 175 not out, Kirmani 24 not out, the 126 not out ninth-wicket stand from 140/8, India 266/8, the 31-run win)
- Cricbuzz, "Mathews, Malinga star in stunning Sri Lanka win" (the 132 stand off 110 balls from 107/8, Mathews 77 not out, Malinga 56, the one-wicket win at the MCG, 3 November 2010)
- Wikipedia, "2011 Cricket World Cup final" (the 109 fourth-wicket stand from 114/3, Gambhir 97, Dhoni 91 not out, the six-wicket win)
- Wisden, "I was playing second fiddle to Jos: Stokes on Buttler" (the 110 fifth-wicket stand from 86/4 in the 2019 final)
- CricTracker full scorecard, England v New Zealand, Final, ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 (the tie, the Super Over tie, the boundary countback)
- Wikipedia, "Fifth ODI, Australian cricket team in South Africa in 2005-06" (the 438 chase at Johannesburg: Smith and Gibbs's 187, Boucher's unbeaten 50, the one-wicket win with a ball to spare)
- ESPNcricinfo full scorecard, South Africa v Australia, 5th ODI, Johannesburg, 12 March 2006 (Australia 434/4, South Africa 438/9 in 49.5 overs, the fall of wickets, Boucher 50 not out)
- Wikipedia, "Sri Lankan cricket team in England in 2006" (the 286 stand, Jayasuriya 152 off 99, Tharanga 109 off 102, the chase of 322 with 75 balls to spare)
- Yorkshire CCC, "Memory Match: England v Sri Lanka" (the 286 off 201 balls, the 5-0 whitewash)
- Sportsyaari full scorecard, South Africa v India, 3rd ODI, Cape Town, 26 November 2006 (the 138 not out eighth-wicket stand from 136/7, Kemp 100 not out, Hall 56 not out, the 106-run win)
- Cricbuzz live scorecard, South Africa v Bangladesh, 1st ODI, Kimberley, 15 October 2017 (de Kock 168 not out, Amla 110 not out, the unbroken 282 chasing 279, the ten-wicket win)
- myKhel full scorecard, South Africa v Australia, World Cup Super Six, Headingley, 13 June 1999 (the 126 fourth-wicket stand from 48/3, Waugh 120 not out, Ponting 69, the five-wicket win)
- NZ Cricket, "Ronchi and Elliott rescue BLACKCAPS in Dunedin" (the 267 not out sixth-wicket stand from 93/5, Ronchi 170 not out, Elliott 104 not out, the 108-run win, 23 January 2015)
- Cricbuzz live scorecard, India v Zimbabwe, 5th Match, Pepsi Triangular Series, Cuttack, 9 April 1998 (the 275 not out fourth-wicket stand from 26/3, Azharuddin 153 not out, Jadeja 116 not out, the 32-run win)
- myKhel, "Highest Partnership in ODI" (the objective top-ten-by-runs list used for the record table)
- CricIndeed, "Highest Partnerships in ODI History" (cross-check on the record table)
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