On September 1, 2021, Team New Zealand lost to Team Bangladesh in a T20 International match for the first time ever. Before this, New Zealand had always been stronger, winning all previous 10 T20I games against Bangladesh. This winning streak was the best unbeaten record between any two teams in T20 Internationals.
In that match, Bangladesh restricted New Zealand to just 60 runs, which is the lowest score any team has ever made against Bangladesh in T20I cricket. The previous lowest score against Bangladesh was 62 runs by Australia.
Here are the top 5 lowest T20I totals by Team New Zealand:
5. 86 vs South Africa
On December 21, 2012, New Zealand played against South Africa in a cricket match in Durban. South Africa played very well and beat New Zealand easily. Brendon McCullum’s team won the coin toss and chose to let South Africa bowl first. But South Africa’s bowlers did a great job and stopped New Zealand from scoring many runs. New Zealand only managed to score 86 runs, with Colin Munro being their highest scorer with 23 runs. When it was South Africa’s turn to bat, Faf Du Plessis and Quinton De Kock played well and quickly reached the target. South Africa won the match by 8 wickets and with 47 balls left to spare.
4. 81 vs Sri Lanka
In a cricket game on May 23, 2010, Sri Lanka played against New Zealand. It was the second match in a series of two matches. They played at Central Broward Regional Park Stadium Turf Ground in Lauderhill.
The series ended in a draw because each team won one match.
Daniel Vettori, the captain of New Zealand, won the coin toss and chose to bat first. They wanted to score a lot of runs, but they didn’t do well. Only two players from New Zealand, Daniel and Nathan McCullum, scored more than 20 runs. The rest of the team didn’t do so well, and they were all out after the 18th over, scoring only 81 runs.
Sri Lanka, led by Kumar Sangakkara, easily chased the small score set by New Zealand in just 15.3 overs. They won the match by defeating New Zealand by 7 wickets, with 27 balls still remaining.
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3. 80 vs Pakistan
The third T20I match was held in Christchurch on December 30, 2010, during Pakistan’s tour of New Zealand. It wasn’t a crucial match since New Zealand had already won the series. The Pakistani team, led by Shahid Afridi, chose to bat first after winning the toss. They scored 183/6 in their 20 overs, with Abdul Razzaq hitting 34 runs quickly.
When New Zealand began their turn to bat, things went badly. They lost five wickets for just 11 runs in 4.4 overs. Even the top four batsmen got out without scoring. Eventually, New Zealand got all out for 80 runs in 15.5 overs, losing the match.
2. 60 vs Sri Lanka
New Zealand had a really bad day in cricket when they played against Sri Lanka at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong on March 31, 2014. They only scored 60 runs before all their players were out. This was one of their worst scores ever in T20I matches, which are short cricket games.
Before that, New Zealand won the coin toss and let Sri Lanka bat first. New Zealand’s bowlers did a great job stopping Sri Lanka from scoring too many runs. Sri Lanka’s team, led by Lasith Malinga, only managed to score 119 runs before all their players were out. This was a pretty low score for a big event like the T20 World Cup.
But when New Zealand tried to chase this small score, things went very wrong. Even though Kane Williamson scored 42 runs, which was good, the rest of the team didn’t do well. They only managed to score 60 runs, and no other player could even get close to Williamson’s score. The main reason for this was Rangana Herath, a player from Sri Lanka, who bowled really well. He only gave away 3 runs and took 5 wickets. Because of his excellent performance, he was given the “man of the match” award.
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1. 60 vs Bangladesh
On September 1, 2021, something special happened at the Shere Bangla National Stadium. Bangladesh won against New Zealand for the first time in T20 International cricket. They won the first match of a series of five games. Bangladesh won by 7 wickets, with 30 balls left to spare. The match wasn’t good for New Zealand. Their batsmen didn’t perform well, especially Tom Latham’s team.
New Zealand chose to bat first after winning the coin toss. But it was a bad decision. They lost their first wicket on the third ball of the match and kept losing wickets regularly. By the end of the fourth over, they were 9/4. Eventually, they were all out by the 17th over, with only 60 runs on the board. Bangladesh’s bowlers were excellent.
Bangladesh also struggled a bit during their turn to bat, losing early wickets. At one point, they were 7/2 in the third over. But Shakib Al Hasan’s 25 runs were crucial for Bangladesh’s win. He was named the player of the match.
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