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14 Of Sports Most Dramatic Finishes

14 Of Sports Most Dramatic Finishes

England's World Cup victory on Sunday couldn't have been any more dramatic but these incredible sporting moments come close.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

The cast of Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Trent Boult, James Neesham, Martin Guptill and 16 others, plus umpires, played out one of the most dramatic moments in sports history on Sunday, but what were the others?

England's World Cup win over New Zealand couldn't have been any more dramatic if it tried with the game twice going down to the wire and including many twists and turns.

Drama is what really makes sport great so here's 14 of the most dramatic sporting moments in history.

Cricket World Cup Final 2019

The best place to start is Sunday afternoon. England and New Zealand had just the 38th tie in 4046 ODIs. The finish to England's innings was dramatic enough, with the three sixes at the end each telling their own story, and the match swung one way and then the other, but the 'Super Over' also finished a tie. Jos Buttler taking Jason Roy's catch and brilliantly running Martin Guptill out will live long in the memory.

England players mob Jos Buttler after he ran out Martin Guptill. Image: PA Images
England players mob Jos Buttler after he ran out Martin Guptill. Image: PA Images

2005 Ashes, 2nd Test, Edgbaston

England cricket isn't exactly short of dramatic endings and Edgbaston in the summer of 2005 is one of the best of all time.

Michael Vaughan's team were 1-0 down in the series, piled on the runs in the first innings and held a big lead after Australia had batted.

Shane Warne's 6/46 gave the Aussies a chance in the second innings and they needed 282 to win. At 175-8 it looked like it was game over but Warne scored 42 to take them 62 runs before stepping onto his own wicket.

Brett Lee and Michael Kasprowicz then put on a 79 run partnership and England looked dead and buried until Kasprowicz gloved a Steve Harmison ball to Geraint Jones. Scenes of jubilation for England and the greatest series was just getting going.

Manchester City 3-2 QPR, May 13th 2012, Premier League

Manchester City led rivals Manchester United in the title race on goal difference going into the last day of the season and faced relegation threatened QPR.

United won 1-0 against Sunderland and City trailed 2-1 with time running out and the Premier League title was going to Old Trafford again.

Fate, or something, had other plans and Edin Dzeko equalised in the 92nd minute to give City hope. With seconds left Sergio Aguero scored, ending 44 years without the League title for City. 'Agueroooooooooo' went down in history.

Manchester United 2-1 Bayern Munich, 26th May 1999, Champions League final

'And Solskjaer has won it!' The line in commentary almost as iconic as Sergio Aguero's. United's own incredible comeback came at the Nou Camp 13 years before City's and whilst Liverpool's own Champions League comeback had its own drama this is my list and I'm being biased, so there.

Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer were the epitome of 'Fergie Time' as the two substitutes scored twice in injury time to capture the Treble for the Red Devils, on what would have been Sir Matt Busby's 90th birthday, narrative.

Watford 3-1 Leicester City, 12th May 2013, Championship play-off semi-final

There's something about football and the month of May, when the pressure is on and anything can happen, that really provides dramatic moments.

Leicester won the first leg of the play-off 1-0 but Watford were leading the second game 2-1 meaning it was headed for extra time. The Foxes won a dubious penalty when Anthony Knockaert was adjudged to have been fouled in the box in injury time and looked certain to head to the final.

Scenes after Deeney's last minute winner. Image: PA Images
Scenes after Deeney's last minute winner. Image: PA Images

Knockaert had his spot kick saved and Watford went up the other end of the pitch on the break. 20 seconds after seeing their chance of reaching the final missed the visitors saw Troy Deeney score to see the Hornets go to Wembley, where they lost to Crystal Palace.

Just three years later though it would be Leicester who would be Premier League champions, madness.

New England Patriots 34-28 Atlanta Falcons, 5th February 2017, Super Bowl LI

Neutrals don't like the Patriots or Tom Brady but there's no doubting how good their comeback was in 2017 when the Pats needed overtime to win Super Bowl LI.

The Falcons took a 21-3 lead into the second half and had improved that lead to 28-9 by the end of the third quarter and Falcons looked certain to win their first Super Bowl.

Brady though had other ideas and New England scored 25 unanswered points to take the game to overtime, where they predictably won it. Julian Edelman's incredible catch with less than two and half minutes remaining in the fourth quarter for a first down was the moment of the match.

Australia 17-20 England, 22nd November 2003, Rugby Union World Cup final

England playing their fierce rivals in Sydney, called 'Dad's Army' and 'boring' on their way to the final but in reality they were the best side in the world.

Australia drew first blood through a Loqui Tuqiri try after six minutes but Jason Robinson responded with his own in the 38th minute.

Robinson scores in the corner in the World Cup final. Image: PA Images
Robinson scores in the corner in the World Cup final. Image: PA Images

The rest of the match was a scrum contest and a kicking competition between Elton Flatley and Jonny Wilkinson. Wilkinson's drop goal in the last minute of extra-time on his wrong foot was the ultimate test under pressure.

Ryder Cup 2012, Medinah.

The Miracle at Medinah was an incredible few days of golf. The Americans were desperate to reclaim the Ryder Cup and got off to a decent start on day one, leading 5-3 by the time it finished.

Their 3-1 win in the morning session on the Saturday put them in total control and they then won the first two pairs on Saturday afternoon to leave them 10-4 up and cruising.

Sergio Garcia and Luke Donald made it 10-5 but it was Ian Poulter's roaring five birdies in a row to turn his match with Rory McIlroy against Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson that proved a real rallying cry.

Europe won the singles 8.5-3.5 to take the match 14.5-13.5, but not before McIlroy added his own drama by nearly missing his tee time by oversleeping and needing a police escort.

Ronda Rousey vs Holly Holm, 14th November 2015, UFC 193

Rousey was the undefeated champion who had put women's UFC on the map and dominated everyone in the division.

Holm, the former boxer, proved the doubters wrong with an incredible kick to the head to knock Rousey out in the second round, she was never the same again.

USA 4-3 Soviet Union, 22nd February 1980, Men's Ice Hockey 1980 Olympics

Dubbed the 'Miracle on Ice' the Americans weren't expected to get near their Soviet opponents, who had won the previous four gold medals in the sport.

The US side consisted of amateurs whilst the defending champions were predominantly professionals. The underdogs took the lead in the third and final period of the game but came under increasing pressure.

With time running out the crowd counted down the seconds and commentator Al Michaels famously said on air, "11 seconds, you've got 10 seconds, the countdown going on right now! Morrow, up to Silk. Five seconds left in the game. Do you believe in miracles? YES!"

Diego Corrales vs. José Luis Castillo, 7th May 2005.

A humdinger of a fight with both men peppering the other with shots throughout but it took until a dramatic 10th round for any knockdowns.

With just three rounds to go Castillo knocked Corrales down in the opening 10 seconds of the round with the downed man spitting his gum shield out to earn extra seconds. He answered the refs eight count and the fight continued.

Just seconds later and he was down again but, despite answering the count again, things got worse as he was deducted a point for spitting out his gum shield again.

However when the fight was restarted for a second time it was Corrales who landed what was a perfect shot and followed it up with a barrage, forcing the ref to stop the fight and Corrales won.

Undertaker vs Brock Lesnar, 6th April 2014, Wrestlemania XXX

Look no list is going without The Streak ending. Lesnar beating Taker at Wrestlemania 30 in the Superdome was one of the biggest shocks in sports entertainment.

Most people thought the 'Deadman' was supposed to kick out of the F5 and there was almost deathly silence amongst the 75,167 in attendance when the bell rang.

2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, 2nd November 2008

Lewis Hamilton lost the F1 world title to Kimi Raikkonen by one point in his debut season but in his second season he just needed to finish the final race in Brazil fifth to win the title.

However the McLaren driver had a poor race and found himself struggling to finish fifth when he changed onto wet tyres under the rain late on.

Felipe Massa crossed the finish line first and at that point was world champion, Ferrari jumped for joy as their man won but, on the penultimate corner, Hamilton past Toyota's Timo Glock, losing time not on wet tyres, to finish fifth and take the title, a cruel blow to Massa at his home race.

Monstars 77-78 TuneSquad, 15th November 1996

The fate of the world, a returning Michael Jordan and a last second winner with the seemingly impossible shot. There is no greater drama than the match simply known as Space Jam!

What did we miss from out list?

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Topics: New Zealand, Golf, Football News, Sergio Aguero, Manchester United, Lewis Hamilton, The Ashes, Ryder Cup, England, Cricket World Cup, Champions League, Cricket News, Ben Stokes