Stats: Shortest T20 innings of all time (by balls)

The T20 is known to be a batter-dominated format where the bowlers must play out of their skins in order to get regular breakthroughs. Apart from surviving the tough powerplay overs, they must also hold their nerves at the death in order to keep the run flow in check. However, there have been a few instances where none of the batters of a team could get going  on a particular day as a result of which that team suffered a collective batting failure and also went on to register lowest totals in the history of the shortest format.

The latest one on this unwanted list happens to be the Sydney Thunder who were skittled out for just 15 runs inside six overs chasing 140 against the Adelaide Strikers in their Big Bash League (BBL) 2022 encounter at the Sydney Showground Stadium on Friday, December 16.

The previous lowest-ever T20 score prior to this match was 21 runs which was registered by Turkey during their T20I encounter against the Czech Republic at Ilfov County in August 2019. In that match, Czech Republic had posted a gigantic score of 278/4 courtesy of an unbeaten 36-ball 104 by Sudesh Wickramasekara. In reply, Honey Gori (3/13, Sameera Waththage (3/4) and Sudesh Wickramasekara (2/0) worked in tandem to complete the formalities in the ninth over.

The third position on this list belongs to Turkey once again who scored 32 runs against Austria during a T20I encounter in August 2019. Four scalps each from Habib Ahmadzai and Zeshan Arif bundled out Turkey for just 32 runs and Austria chased down the target without breaking a sweat in only the third over by 10 wickets.

The fourth place is taken by Mohammedan who were all out for 45 runs on the board against Prime Bank during a T20 fixture at Sylhet in December 2013. Batting first, the Prime Bank Cricket Club posted a mammoth 204/3 on the board courtesy of an unbeaten 63-ball 105 from opener Anamul Haque. In reply, veteran all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan’s match-winning six wicket haul got the job done for Prime Bank by a comprehensive margin of 159 runs.

The fifth spot is occupied by the Royal Challengers Bangalore who were dismissed for 49 runs by the Kolkata Knight Riders during an  IPL 2017 league encounter. Chasing a manageable target of 131, Australian pacer Nathan Coulter-Nile’s 3/21 applied brakes on RCB’s innings before the 10^th over.

Here are the shortest innings by balls in T20 history.