Stats: West Indies losing Tests by an innings margin

West Indies suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Australia in the first Test on their tour down under in 2015 by an innings and 212 runs. West Indies skipper Jason Holder perhaps summed up the story of the Test in the best possible way saying, “A tough few days for us. We didn’t start well in the first session and we were very indisciplined. Always on the back foot since then.”

This was not the first instance when the Caribbean side has lost by a big margin in Test cricket history. Once a dominating force in the world of cricket, West Indies, have suffered 38 innings defeat in their history of the game.

The first instance came against England at Manchester in 1928 when they lost by an inning and 30 runs. They were bundled out for scores of 206 and 115 in the match as against England’s total of 351. The next 3 instances came against Australia in 1931 when they suffered successive innings defeat.

West Indies have suffered an innings defeat against Australia and England on the most number of occasions. They have 12 defeats each against the two sides out of their 38 overall innings defeat.

The last instance of West Indies losing by an innings and more, prior to their innings loss at Hobart, was against Sri Lanka at Galle in October 2015, less than a couple of months ago. They lost by an innings and 6 runs against the island nation.

Here is the list of all instances when West Indies lost by an innings and more in the history of Test matches:

Australia has been the chief destroyer of West Indies in Test cricket when it comes to innings defeat. They have defeated the Caribbean side 12 times by a margin of an innings and more. The first 3 occasions came in 1931.

Australia, captained by Bill Woodfull, defeated the Jackie Grant led West Indies 4-1 in the 5-match Test series. Prior to the Hobart Test, West Indies suffered an innings defeat against Australia in 2009 at Brisbane when they lost by an innings and 65 runs.

Here is the list of all instances when Australia dominated the West Indies by an innings and more in Test matches:

Interestingly, West Indies have lost by an inning and more than 200 runs on 5 occasions. Australia and England have defeated the West Indies by this margin on two occasions each while South Africa achieved this distinction when they defeated the West Indies by an inning and 220 runs at Centurion in 2014.

The biggest loss margin for West Indies has been a loss at the hands of English by an innings and 283 runs at Leeds in 2007.

Stats by HR Gopala Krishna