On October 31, India faced a severe defeat in the second T20I match against Australia held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The match was never really close, and right from the start, Indian batting looked vulnerable as Josh Hazlewood wreaked havoc and took three wickets quickly.
Australia after posting a meager total, Indian bowlers were unable to defend it and conceded it with almost 7 overs left resulting in a 4-wicket loss. Consequently, India gets once more on the disfavored list of having the most lopsided defeats in T20 history in terms of balls left to play. Here is the complete list of these losses.
Biggest Defeat For India in T20 format
4. 31 balls Remaining vs Australia in 2012
The match with which the Indian and Australian teams met in the 2016 ICC World T20 Group Stage was the first match to be discussed. Indian batters could not do more than 140 runs with the help of batting contributions from Irfan Pathan and Suresh Raina.
No trouble for Australian batsmen who executed their plan to perfection and the innings was finished by Watson and Warner 31 runs in front as Watson cracked 72 off 42 balls while David scored 63 off 41 balls in no time.
3. 33 balls Remaining vs New Zealand and Sri Lanka in 2021
On October 31, India took on New Zealand in the T20 World Cup 2021’s 28th match. India again did not have a successful outing as they batted first and could only score 110 runs. The top order was wiped out and a few more wickets fell from the middle.
India’s total was somewhat bolstered by Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja’s efforts. In response, New Zealand’s Darrell Mitchell and Kane Williamson produced a 72-run partnership to finish the match with 33 balls left and 8 wickets in hand.
India faced another situation where they had to struggle a lot and eventually surrendered losing a T20I match by 33 runs against Sri Lanka during their 2021 tour. India took up the batting first and scored a meager 81 runs losing 8 wickets. The only recognizable contribution to the team came from Kuldeep Yadav, who scored 23 runs off 28 balls. Both Sanju Samson and Shikhar Dhawan went back to the pavilion without scoring. From the other side, the Sri Lankan pair of Wanindu Hasaranga and Dhananjaya de Silva completed the target with 7 wickets and 33 balls to spare.
2. 40 balls Remaining vs Australia in 2025
The second occasion in which India committed such a blunder occurred on October 31, 2025, when they were defeated by 4 wickets as Australia entered the victory with 40 balls to go in the second T20I of the ongoing five-match series. Batting first after losing the toss, India suffered early setbacks as Tilak Varma got out for a duck and the openers Shubman Gill, Sanju Samson, and Suryakumar Yadav were all dismissed by the fifth over.
The stellar 68 by Abhishek Sharma and the unexpected 35 by Harshit Rana took India to a small total of 125. Yet, it was not enough as the Australian pair of Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head launched a fierce counteroffensive and took the home side to an easy victory at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
1. 52 balls Left vs Australia in 2008
The initial listing is the sole T20I at Melbourne in 2008 where Michael Clarke was awarded Player of the Match for his incredible display. India was first to bat and was shamefully bundled out for only 74 runs. Par, Virender Sehwag, and Robin Uthappa, each managed to score only a few runs, while Dinesh Karthik was out for a duck.
Irfan Pathan was the only scorer with a contribution of 26 runs that gave the spectators a very short moment of hope. However, the Australian team was very quick in their response to the world and lost only Gilchrist who scored 25 runs. Captain Michael Clarke together with Brad Hodge confidently led the Aussie side to victory with 52 balls left and 9 wickets in hand.
