Highest win percentage achieved by a Men’s T20I team in a calendar year
Winning streaks in Twenty20 cricket are quite tough to maintain due to the uncertainty of the format. These streaks help the teams to maintain a high win percentage which doesn’t happen often in Twenty20 Internationals in a given season or a calendar year. Till date, only three teams in T20I cricket have had a win percentage over 85 in a calendar year even after playing at least ten matches. Here we look at top five teams with highest win percentage in a calendar year in Men’s T20Is: (Including Super Over wins/losses)
5) Afghanistan – 81.82 in 2015:
On their way to sealing a spot in the 2016 WT20 hosted by India, Afghanistan won a huge number of T20 matches. However, only 11 of those matches had the T20I status out of which the Afghans won as many as nine and had a win percentage of 81.82. Afghanistan’s both defeats came against Hong Kong; one of them on the final ball of the match and the other defeat in the final over.
4) Pakistan – 81.82 in 2009:
? As it’s #PakistanDay, here’s @SAfridiOfficial leading @TheRealPCB to victory in the World T20 final at Lord’s in 2009.#LoveLords pic.twitter.com/GSoF8wSAj7
— Lord’s Cricket Ground (@HomeOfCricket) March 23, 2018
Pakistan won the World T20 in 2009 by defeating Sri Lanka in the final under the captaincy of Younis Khan. Pakistan had a win percentage of 81.82 in that year as they won nine of the 11 matches played and lost only two. The first of the two defeats came in their first game of the WT20 where they lost to England while another defeat came against Sri Lanka in their first match of the Super-8s round; both while chasing only.
3) Papua New Guinea – 87.5 in 2019:
Papua New Guinea got to play as many as 17 matches in the T20I format in 2019 due to the qualifiers heading to the 2020 Men’s WT20. Only 16 of those matches ended with a result as one of them got washed out due to rain. They won as many as 14 and lost only two; both coming during the Qualifier even in UAE at the end of the year. PNG lost to Scotland by four runs and ended the tournament with a 7-wicket defeat against the Netherlands but sealed a spot in the World event.
2) Pakistan – 89.47 in 2018:
2016-2018 was a golden phase in the T20I format for Pakistan where they won a lot of matches in succession. In 2018, Pakistan played as many as 19 matches but lost only two of them and won in the remaining 17 games. They began the year with a big 7-wicket defeat against New Zealand and won 8 matches in a row. The streak ended following a huge 9-wicket loss in the hands of Australia during the Tri-series. Pakistan followed the defeat with a 9-match winning streak; their biggest in this format.
1) India – 90 in 2020:
India played as many as 11 T20I matches in 2020 but couldn’t win their first and final games of the calendar year. The first match was a washout against Sri Lanka while the last one was a narrow loss against Australia. This meant India won as many as nine of the 10 completed T20Is and have a win percentage of 90. India won nine T20Is in a row which is their longest winning streak of the format. This spree included Super Over wins in successive matches.
