The Worst Defeats in T20Is-1

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.

 

 

 

Summary of India’s tours to Australia

This was India’s first victory in a Test series in Australia, in 12 Test series going back to 1947-48.

This was India’s first victory in a bilateral ODI series in Australia. This was only the second such series, Australia having won the first in 2015-2016.

If you count ODI series with more than 3 teams, India had won the Commonwealth Bank series in 2007-08, where Australia was the losing finalist and Sri Lanka was the third participant.

And there was the B & H World Championship in 1984-85, where Pakistan was the losing finalist and all 7 Test teams of that period took part. India won all 5 of their matches, and the series was immortalized by Shastri’s Audi.

India did not win this T20I series, which was drawn 1-1 with one “no result”. However India had won the only other 3-match series in 2015-16 3-0. That was the only time that a visiting team had made a clean sweep of any series in Australia in a series of 3 or more matches in ANY format of cricket.

The worst defeat for Australia at home would appear to be England’s 2-0 victory in the 1886-87 Test series. Or perhaps England’s 5-1 victory against a Packerized team in 1978-79.

To put it differently, this was the first time that Australia failed to win a series in ANY format of cricket during a tour. Perhaps they will have better luck with Sri Lanka in the latter half of their season. Sri Lanka is to play 2 Tests and no other matches.

While many teams have separate captains for Tests, ODIs and T20Is, India had Virat Kohli as captain in all 3 formats.His counterpart was TD Paine in Tests and AD Finch in ODIs and T20Is.

Records of Pak-WI T20I on April 1, 2018

Here are the records which were set in this match, which was one of the most one-sided T20I matches ever. First, the scorecard:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/18597/scorecard/1140069/pakistan-vs-west-indies-1st-t20i-wi-in-pakistan-2018/ 

All figures are correct on April 1, 2018.

Lowest-ever T20I scores (85 and below):

Live link: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283172.html

We see that WI’s total is among the lowest in all T20Is, but still ahead of the record of 39 all out by Netherlands in 2014, in the course of the T20I World Championships. Their previous lowest was 79/7 against Zimbabwe in 2010, which you can see in the above total. The previous lowest all-out total was 101 against Sri Lanka in 2009, in the course of the T20I World Championship.

Pakistan recorded its joint-highest T20I total, as it had also made 203/5 against Bangladesh at Karachi in 2008. This is however not too high in the all-time list of high T20I scores, which is headed by Australia’s 263/6 against Sri Lanka in 2016.

Highest T20I totals by Pakistan:

And Pakistan also recorded its highest margin of victory:

It can be seen that it is the second-highest margin (by runs) in all T20Is, surpassed only by Sri Lanka’s demolition of Kenya in the first T20I World Championship. It is also the largest victory margin in matches between full members. Pakistan’s previous record was 103 runs against New Zealand in 2010.

Live link: http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283283.html

 

The triple clean sweep

The triple clean sweep in all 3 formats of cricket has been recorded once before, when Pakistan visited Australia in 2009-10. Australia won the Tests 3-0, the ODIs 5-0 and the single T20I (admittedly by only 2 runs). You can see the details here:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/index.html?season=2009%2F10;view=season

The second Test was won by the comparatively narrow margin of 36 runs.

Then came the ODIs:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/index.html?season=2009%2F10;view=season

The first 4 ODIs were rather one-sided although Australia won the 5th one by 2 wickets.

And finally:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/index.html?season=2009%2F10;view=season

Australia won this by just 2 runs, making it a 9-0 sweep. Remember that this was in their home country.

Nothing like this was achieved until India visited Sri Lanka in 2017:

Tests 3-0 with Sri Lanka losing by big margins:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/index.html?season=2017;view=season

ODIs 5-0, all by handsome margins except one win by 3 wickets:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/index.html?season=2017;view=season

And the T20I by a good margin:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/index.html?season=2017;view=season

Thus India emulated Australia’s 9-0 triple clean sweep, with somewhat bigger margins of victory. But unlike Australia, they achieved this away from home.

Salute Virat Kohli and his men.

Kohli captained all 9 matches, but faced a bewildering array of captains:

Tests: Herath, Chandimal, Chandimal

ODIs: Tharanga, Tharanga, Kapugedara, Malinga, Tharanga

T20I: Tharanga

In contrast, the Australian captain Ponting faced M. Yousuf in the three Tests and 4 of the 5 ODIs, when Afridi came in for the last one. In the T20I it was Clarke vs Shoaib Malik.

Tail piece:

Earlier, India won a T20I series 3-0 in Australia in early 2016 which was believed to be the only clean sweep by a visiting team in Australia in any format of cricket in a series of at least 3 matches:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/category/australia-t20/

Clean sweeps in away Test series (Updated in Nov 2022)

Clean sweeps of Test series of 3,4 and 5 matches are not as rare as one may think. Here is Cricinfo’s listing:

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283942.html

India has recorded clean sweeps at home earlier (and have faced 5-0 sweeps against England and the West Indies as well, but never at home). India had already won against England 3-0 in 1992-93, against Sri Lanka 3-0 (all by an innings) in 1993-94, against Australia 4-0 in 2012-2013, against New Zealand 3-0 in 2016-17, 3-0 against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka and now 3-0 against South Africa in 2019-2020.

That was not, however, the first time India have won 3 Tests in an away series. They defeated New Zealand 3-1 in 1967-68, achieving India’s first Test and series win outside India. This series is often forgotten, probably because of New Zealand’s low standing at that time and also because India had just endured a 3-0 loss in England followed by a 4-0 loss in Australia.

There were also mini-sweeps (2-0) by India in Bangladesh (2004-05 and 2009-10), in Zimbabwe (2005-06) and in the West Indies (2019). Similarly India lost 2-0 to South Africa at home in 1999-2000.

The 2016-17  series included wins by 304 runs followed by two innings wins (though the first Test was effectively an innings defeat as the total of Sri Lanka’s two innings was less than India’s first innings total). Again, this is not new as India had won all 3 Tests by an innings at home against the same opposition in 1993-94. Other examples of this kind include the West Indies losing all 3 Tests by an innings in their first series against England in 1928.

West Indies is the only team to win 4-0 or 5-0 away. They won 5-0 against England in England in 1984, and followed this with 5-0 at home in 1985-86 against the same opponents.

There was a tinge of black humor in reportage of these West Indies victories in the 1980s. Earlier the term “whitewash” was commonly used for a clean sweep, so it was but natural that a 5-0 victory by the West Indies would be called a “blackwash”, as in 1984 and 1985-86. By 1988 England had improved a bit and lost the 5-Test home series 4-0. This was dubbed a “dark grey wash”.

Then there was India’s “brownwash” of England in 1992-93.

3-0 sweeps away from home are not too common. An updated list as of Dec 2022:

Eng in NZ, 1962-63

Aus in NZ, 1999-2000

Aus in SL, 2003-04

Aus in SA, 2005-06

Ind in SL, 2017

Eng in SL, 2018-2019

Eng in Pak, 2021-2022

And in neutral venues:

Aus v Pak, 2002-03

Pak v Eng, 2011-12.

There have been many near-clean sweeps of 4-0 and 4-1 in 5-Test series. In the 6-Test series which were played between the 1970s and 1990s, we have two examples of 5-1 margins:

Aus v WI in Aus, 1975-76

Eng v Aus in Aus, 1978-79

A landmark win for Bangladesh

Bangladesh has now completed 100 Tests. They marked the 100th Test with their 9th Test victory. Here are the 9 Test victories in chronological order:

This can be summarized as:

Won 1-0 at home vs Zimbabwe in 2004-05

Won 2-0 away vs West Indies in 2009

Drew 1-1 away vs Zimbabwe in 2013

Won 3-0 at home vs Zimbabwe in 2014-15

Drew 1-1 at home vs England in 2016-17

Drew 1-1 away vs Sri Lanka in 2016-17

Today’s win was their first Test victory against Sri Lanka (and in Sri Lanka).

At this point we can review the performances of Bangladeshi players in these 9 Test victories.

Runs: 100 and above:

Tamim, Shakib and Mushfiqur played in 8 of the 9 wins. They only missed the one in 2004-05. Tamim scored 4 centuries and 2 fifties in these matches, as you can see in the table below.

Highest innings (90 and above):

Bowling (5 or more wickets):

Shakib far ahead of the others with Taijul as a surprise second, with newcomer Miraz rapidly moving up.

Best innings bowling (5wi and above):

The one-Test heroes Taijul and Enamul head the list. Otherwise there is mainly Shakib, but do not forget Mahmudullah’s fiver on debut as well as the emergence of MH Miraz.

Best match bowling (7 or more wickets):

Headed by Miraj and Shakib. Shakib scored a century in the same match.

Most fielding dismissals (5 and above):

Headed by Mushfiqur who kept in all but the 2005 match. Khaled Mashud was the keeper then. Mahmudullah and Mominul have the most catches as non-keepers.

Innings fielding dismissals (3 or more):

Mainly Mushfiqur, though Soumya Sarkar has the most (4) catches by a non-keeper.

Match fielding dismissals (4 or more):

As above, headed by Mushfiqur for keepers and Soumya for non-keepers.

All-round performance (minimum 250 runs and 5 wickets):

Shakib followed by Mahmudullah (who was dropped for the current match).

All-round performance in match (fifty and five-for):

Includes M. Rafique, the only all-rounder in the early Tests and two efforts by Shakib. This includes the century and ten wickets at Khulna, which puts him on the same level as Botham and Imran.

You can also see this piece written at the time of the victory over England a few months ago:

https://abn397.wordpress.com/2016/10/31/bangladeshs-greatest-test-win/