5 worst defeats for England in ODIs
England have come a long way in ODI cricket over the past 2 years and are currently the No.1 ranked side in the world.
However, yesterday’s defeat at the hands of Scotland opened up old memories about some of the ridiculous and embarrassing defeats that the nation has suffered in ODI cricket over the course of the last few decades.
Emerging nations have often played out of their skins to defeat more fancied opponents throughout the history of ODI cricket, but what made Scotland’s victory so brilliant was that they scored big and then defended the total against one of the most explosive batting line-ups in the world.
England had the game in their grasp, but Scotland refused to give up and ended up winning the game, thereby handing their more illustrious neighbors a sobering defeat.
That being said, it is not the first time that England have had such a defeat and here is a look at some of the worst defeats that the English cricket team have had to endure.
#5. 165 run loss against West Indies at Kingstown, 1994
Now, losing to the West Indies of the early 1990s is not exactly a matter of shame, but the way in which England’s performance unfolded at Kingstown in the 3rd ODI of the 5 match series makes it one of the major lows in their history.
The series was locked at 1-1, when the teams headed to Kingstown and nothing went right for England once they put the visitors in to bat after winning the toss. The entire West Indian top order got runs and thanks to a superb innings from Brian Lara (60 off 41) and Richie Richardson (52 off 34), they made 313.
It was a huge total in those days, but everyone must have expected the finalists of the previous World Cup to put up a fight.
England’s batsmen were completely overwhelmed by West Indies’ 4 man pace attack (Ambrose, Anderson Cummins, Kenny Benjamin and Winston Benjamin) and kept losing wickets from the outset.
Graeme Hick top scored with 32 (85 balls) and the Englishmen finished their innings at a miserably 148/9 in 50 overs. It remains one of England’s most embarrassing defeats in their ODI history.