There are few one day Internationals where the matches are low scoring in nature and the team batting first defends such low totals that surprise the viewers. During these matches the bowlers get to show why they are so good and true cricket fans will appreciate the skills shown by these bowlers.
There have been a few matches here and there where teams have Defended low scores in a match so it will be very interesting to see what are the top 5 Lowest Totals Defended in One Day Internationals.
1. India vs Pakistan (Defended 125 Runs):
This was a match where batting was not at its best from either of the two teams. This match took place at the iconic Sharjah cricket ground and while batting first India didn’t bat to the best of their ability and only Mohammad Azharuddin and Kapil Dev batted decently for India which guided India to a total past 100. It was an easy total for Pakistan to chase, but the Indian bowlers led by Kapil Dev bowled exceedingly well that day to bowl out Pakistan for only 87 runs and won the match by an amazing margin of 38 runs in such a low scoring match.
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2. West Indies vs England (Defended 127 Runs):
This match was between the two top teams during the early 1980s and surprisingly it was an extremely low scoring match. While batting first the West Indies team could only manage 127 runs with Everton Mattis scoring 62 of those. It seemed the England team should chase this down even with the legendary West Indies attack but Colin Croft bowled an outstanding spell and took 6 wickets and rocked England who only lost the match by 2 runs.
3. South Africa vs England (Defended 129 Runs):
This match took place in 1996 between these two top teams and the batters from both the teams were disappointed that day. South Africa batted first and could only manage to make 129 runs in their first innings and England should have easily won this match but as they say cricket is a funny game so that day the English batters could not bat properly and kept losing wickets at regular intervals and all the South Africa bowlers for wickets and they won the match by 14 runs.
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4. Zimbabwe vs Afghanistan (Defended 129 Runs):
This match between these two of the teams who are not the best teams took place in 2017. While batting first Zimbabwe made 129 runs in their 50 overs and the batters were very poor and the Afghan team must have been thinking we have won ,but they batted even worse than their opponents and lost the match by 3 runs. Such matches happening often is not good as the audience wants to see high scores.
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5. Afghanistan vs Zimbabwe (Defended 131 Runs):
This is one more match between these two lower ranked teams and it took place In Sharjah. Afghanistan batters first and they were highly disappointing in their home ground and only could manage to score 131 runs on the board, but as they say never say anything unless both teams have batted and Zimbabwe proved this to be true as they gave one of their worst batting performances ever as they got bundled out for 82, thus losing this match by a whopping 49 runs. Such low scoring matches especially between teams who aren’t the best don’t help anyone so they should work on their batting skills more.
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