Top 10 lowest totals in World Cup history

The ICC World Cup event comes every four years and it is a platform for teams to showcase cricket of some high caliber. However, along with some top-class teams, some minnow teams also get a chance to play the game on the grandest scale of them all. However, not all teams get a chance to set the stage on fire and thanks to less-experienced batting lineups against full strength bowling attacks end up making embarrassingly low totals in ICC event.

Canada features twice in the list of lowest team totals in World Cup history with the top two scores of 36 against Sri Lanka in 2003 in Paarl and 45 against England in the 1979 edition in Manchester respectively. While in 1979, the ODI cricket was still in its infancy and given that England was a much stronger team, the Canadian low score can be attributed to inexperience.

But Canada’s performance in the 2003 World Cup was disappointing, given that they had plenty of experience in international cricket. But their sojourn in the tournament is remembered for two things, John Davison’s the then fastest century in the tournament and being bowled out for just 36 runs. This happened to them, as they faced off against Sri Lanka in Paarl bowling friendly pitch and the Islander bowlers Prabhat Nissanka and Chaminda Vaas picked four and three wickets respectively not letting any Canadian batsman reach double figures.

Sri Lanka chased down the total in 4.4 overs with Marvan Atapattu scoring 24* in 14 balls. It is still one of the biggest wins in ODIs and World Cup history in terms of balls left with 272 balls remaining in the innings. The same tournament saw Australia bowl out Namibia for 45 runs as Glenn McGrath registered the best bowling figures in tournament history, picking 7/15. Australia had made 301/6 batting first and won the match by 256 runs.

The fourth lowest total in World Cup came in 2011 tournament, as West Indies routed Bangladesh for 58 runs in Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka, which led to Bangla fans pelting the West Indies team bus with stones mistaking them for their home team. The Tigers continued their bad run in the World Cup with a score of 78 against South Africa, again in Dhaka.

The only big team in the list is Pakistan, who were bowled out for just 74 runs against England in the 1992 edition, but thankfully the game got rained out and saved the Men in Green from embarrassment. They later recovered amazingly well to go on to lift the trophy, defeating England in the finals.

Here are the top 10 lowest team totals in World Cup history: