The Malian women’s T20I team has been making headlines all over the cricket world (not only in Bamako and famed Timbuktu) for their abject defeats.
It is a good time to examine the worst T20I defeats. For a change, gentlemen before ladies.
The worst defeat in a limited overs match is measured by either 1) runs or 2) balls remaining when the target is reached.
One can also look at 3) lowest scores by runs 4) highest scores by runs conceded
And as a stretch: 5) least balls in an innings.
We now look at the records of men’s T20Is as on 27-06-2019:
Losses by runs (100 and above):
We can see that the worst defeat was sustained by Kenya in the 2007 World Championship, and that they made 88 when facing a Sri Lankan total of 260.
Losses by balls remaining (60 or more):
These are all the cases where a target was chased down in 10 overs or less.
The “winner” here was Botswana who were dismissed for 46, and then let Namibia hit off these runs in 3.5 overs or 16.1 overs/97 balls remaining. Next comes Netherlands in the course of the 2014 World Championship. Other whipping boys such as Kenya, Nepal and Germany follow.
Lowest scores (60 or less):
The biggest fail here is Netherlands with 39 against Sri Lanka in the 2014 World Championship (mentioned above).
And next is one of the big boys, West Indies with 45 against England earlier this year.
Other whipping boys such as Botswana, Germany and Nepal follow.
Least balls in an innings (90 or less):
The lowest tally here is 10.3 overs, just over the halfway mark.
Most of these are in the second innings.
Our old friends Netherlands again, followed by West Indies as mentioned above.
A few teams such as South Africa have crossed 100 here in less than 15 overs.
And finally,
Highest opposing totals (240 and above):
Note that almost all of these are in the first innings.
Ireland has conceded the most (278) to Afghanistan earlier this year. But even Australia had a similar experience against Sri Lanka in 2016. Kenya conceded 260 to Sri Lanka in 2007 as mentioned earlier.
Next we will take up women’s T20Is, which includes single-digit totals.
abn397 