The lowest team totals in cricket history, format by format

New Zealand's 26 against England at Auckland in March 1955 is the lowest completed innings in Test cricket. West Indies' 27 against Australia at Kingston in July 2025 is second. The lowest one-day international total is 35, shared by Zimbabwe and the United States, and the lowest men's T20 international total is Ivory Coast's 7.

A team is bowled out cheaply somewhere in the world most weeks. Very few of those innings end up on this page. The list below covers completed innings — all out — in men's and women's internationals, and it is short, because scores this low are genuinely rare.

All figures were checked against ESPNcricinfo's Statsguru as at 12 August 2026. Declared and unfinished innings are excluded throughout, which is why a side that reached 20 for 1 in a four-ball chase does not appear.

What is the lowest team total in Test cricket?

New Zealand's 26 against England at Auckland in March 1955 has stood for 71 years. It came within a run of being beaten in July 2025, when West Indies were dismissed for 27 by Australia at Kingston.

Here is every completed Test innings under 40 — the whole list, not a selection.

Kingston is worth pausing on, because it is the only entry from the last ninety years that was over almost before it started. West Indies batted 14.3 overs. Mitchell Starc took 6 for 9 and reached five wickets inside 15 balls, and Scott Boland took a hat-trick in the same innings. ESPNcricinfo recorded it as the third-shortest all-out innings in Test history and the first Test innings to contain seven ducks.

Which Test nation has the lowest total of its own?

Every one of the twelve Test-playing nations has been bowled out for under 105 at some point. Ireland managed it in their second Test; Afghanistan's worst is comfortably the highest on the list.

Four of those twelve were set in the last decade. That is not a coincidence, and it leads to the more interesting question.

Are low totals becoming more common?

Counting every completed Test innings under 60 — there have been 46 in the history of the format — the distribution is lopsided in a way that is easy to miss.

Forty years produced four. The twenty-six years since have produced twenty, six of them in the 2020s alone. The 1960s are the only decade in Test history with none at all.

Two changes sit behind the pattern, and neither is about batters being worse. Result pitches are prepared deliberately, because boards and broadcasters would rather have a three-day Test than a draw. And the modern international calendar leaves batters arriving in a country with a warm-up game or none, facing a ball that moves in conditions they have not played in for four years.

Twenty of the 46 lowest Test innings on record have been made since 2000. Four were made in the forty
years before that.

The counts above are derived from the full Statsguru innings list, ordered by score, with declared and unfinished innings removed.

What is the lowest total in a one-day international?

Two sides share the ODI record at 35: Zimbabwe against Sri Lanka at Harare in 2004, and the United States against Nepal at Kirtipur in 2020.

Sri Lanka appear on both sides of this list, which is the honest way to read it: any batting side can have a morning like this. Their 43 at Paarl in 2012 remains the lowest by a side that had won a World Cup.

How low can a T20 international go?

Lower than most people expect, because T20I status now covers every ICC member. Ivory Coast were bowled out for 7 by Nigeria at Abuja in November 2024, in 7.3 overs.

• 7 — Ivory Coast v Nigeria, Abuja, 24 Nov 2024
• 10 — Isle of Man v Spain, Cartagena, 26 Feb 2023
• 10 — Mongolia v Singapore, Bangi, 5 Sep 2024
• 12 — Mongolia v Japan, Sano, 8 May 2024
• 17 — Mongolia v Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, 31 Aug 2024

Among the twelve Test-playing nations the floor is much higher. West Indies hold that mark with 45 against England at Basseterre in March 2019, ahead of their own 55 against England at Dubai in 2021, Afghanistan's 56 against South Africa at Tarouba in 2024 and Zimbabwe's 57 against Pakistan at Bulawayo the same year.

What are the lowest totals in women's internationals?

The women's Test record belongs to a single match. At Melbourne in February 1958, England were bowled out for 35 and Australia replied with 38 — the two lowest completed innings in the format's history, in the same game.

The Netherlands' 22 at Deventer in 2008 is the lowest completed innings in any women's international. The most recent entry near the top of the women's Test list is South Africa's 64 against England at Bloemfontein in December 2024, made in 19.4 overs.

Does a warm-up collapse count as a record?

No, and the distinction matters this week. Bangladesh were bowled out for 54 by a Cricket Australia XI at Marrara Cricket Ground in Darwin on 8 August 2026, losing by an innings and 38 runs, with Campbell Thompson taking 8 for 25 from 11 overs.

It was a three-day tour match played 13-a-side by agreement, which means it does not carry first-class status. It will not appear in any of the tables above, and neither will the collapses that happen in domestic one-day cricket every season. Records lists count only what the ICC recognises as an international.

Bangladesh's first Test against Australia begins on 13 August at the same ground. You can follow it on our live scores page, check the rest of the tour on the match schedule, and look up either side's squad on the teams page.

Statistics in this article were checked as at 12 August 2026.

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