Greatest Underdog Performances in T20 World Cup History as Zimbabwe Stun Australia
Published - 24 Feb 2026, 02:29 PM | Updated - 24 Feb 2026, 11:35 PM
When the brilliant Blessing Muzarabani dismissed Matthew Renshaw with Australia still 34 runs away from victory in Colombo, 15,000 neutrals at the Premadasa Stadium knew they'd witnessed something extraordinary. Australia all out for 146, chasing 170. Twenty-four runs short. Tournament favorites humiliated by Zimbabwe, 17 years on from finding themselves in the exact same position.
Aussies Downed in Colombo
The Zimbabwe players collapsed in a heap near the bowler's crease, Sikandar Raza weeping openly, Brian Bennett—unbeaten on 64 off 56 balls anchoring the innings—pumping his fists toward the night sky as if summoning every ancestor who'd suffered through Zimbabwean cricket's wilderness years. In the Australian dressing room, stunned silence. Pat Cummins stared at his boots. Matthew Wade hadn't moved. This wasn't supposed to happen. Australia don't lose to Zimbabwe. Except they just had, comprehensively, and the 2026 T20 World Cup had announced itself as the tournament where cricket's natural order means absolutely nothing.
The Baggy Greens headed to Sri Lanka as the clear favorites to claim the title for the second time in five years, but online betting sites have unsurprisingly changed their tune. The latest online gambling odds at 5Gringos now have Australia pushed all the way out to 25/1 to win the tournament after losses to the hosts and the underdog Zimbabweans, with India installed as the 5/4 front-runners. But the Aussies' recent defeat is far from a standalone phenomenon.
Zimbabwe's heist joins a lineage of upsets that define the T20 World Cup's identity more than any champion ever could. Since the inaugural edition of the competition in 2007, there have been plenty of shockers. Let's take a look at the best of them and see which teams have really shone from the underdog position.
The Netherlands Stun England at Lord's
England versus the Netherlands at the Home of Cricket back in 2009. One-sided, surely. England posted 162-5 batting first—Ravi Bopara and Luke Wright smashing 102 inside 12 overs—and the Dutch faced chasing 163 at the venue where English dominance felt architecturally mandated, written into the pavilion's Victorian brickwork. Except Tom de Grooth didn't read that script.
He anchored with 49 runs of bloody-minded resistance while wickets tumbled around him, and suddenly, the Netherlands needed seven runs off Stuart Broad's final over with four wickets in hand. Chaos. Pure chaos. Ryan ten Doeschate facing, Edgar Schiferli at the non-striker's end, 20,000 fans holding their breath.
By the final ball, the Oranje needed two runs to win, one run to draw. After ten Doeschate clipped the ball back toward the bowler, Broad collected and threw at the stumps, attempting a run-out and the victory it would bring with it. Instead, he missed and could only watch on in absolute horror as the ball raced to the boundary. Four overthrows. Game over. The Netherlands had won on the final ball in the most theatrical finish imaginable.
Dutch players stormed the field like they'd won a lottery—which, career-wise, they had. Most played cricket around day jobs, provincial leagues, and borrowed facilities. This was their Everest, climbed in front of 20,000 shocked English faces at cricket's spiritual headquarters. English humiliation at Lord's. James Anderson's three wickets meant nothing. Broad's missed throw would haunt him for years.
England's Never-Ending Dutch Nightmare
But if Lord's was dramatic, Chittagong five years later was a brutal execution. The Netherlands met England once again, this time batting first and posting a modest 133-5 on a sluggish surface. England needed 134 to win. Comfortable. Routine. Except that Mudassar Bukhari and Logan van Beek hadn't received that memo.
England capitulated for 88 all out in 17.4 overs. Not close. Not competitive. Total humiliation. Bukhari claimed 3-12, van Beek finished 3-9, and English batsmen played like Sunday league cricketers facing their first proper bowling. Michael Lumb went for six. Alex Hales dismissed cheaply. Jos Buttler managed six before van Beek trapped him. Ravi Bopara—star of Lord's five years earlier—failed again. Stuart Broad made four. The middle order disintegrated. Panic set in. Shot selection deteriorated from poor to agricultural. Forty-five run defeat. Comprehensive. Crushing. Career-damaging.
Ireland's MCG Masterclass
Another T20 World Cup, another England disaster-class. That was the case in 2022 when they met local neighbors Ireland at Australia's iconic MCG. Super 12 stage. England huge favorites; Ireland merely happy to be invited to the party.
With rain threatening, captain Andrew Balbirnie's 62 off 47 balls—his first T20 World Cup fifty—propelled Ireland to 157, supported by Lorcan Tucker's 34 off 27 in an 82-run partnership. But Balbirnie wasn't just compiling runs; he was calculating DLS par scores in real-time, knowing rain would arrive, ensuring Ireland stayed ahead of the required rate throughout.
Then Josh Little destroyed England's chase before it started. Jos Buttler caught behind for a golden duck—first-ball dismissal, captain's nightmare—off Little's away-swinger that kissed the outside edge. Alex Hales went for seven, edging another away-swinger to slip. England 29-3 after 5.1 overs, chase in absolute tatters. Little's spell: 3-0-16-2, bowling with late swing and immaculate length that England's batsmen couldn't handle. Moeen Ali resisted—31 off 20—but Ireland kept England behind DLS par throughout.
When rain arrived with England 105-5 in 14.3 overs, officials called it. Ireland won by five runs via the DLS method, defeating their local rivals for the second time after their famous 2011 ODI World Cup upset in Bangalore.
Afghanistan March to the Semifinals
World Cup semifinals are hallowed ground. Over the years, only the big guns had ever made it that far: India, England, Australia, all regulars. In 2024, a new player gatecrashed the party with Afghanistan reaching their first-ever World Cup semi-final of any kind.
Their stunning upset of New Zealand in the group stage had already set the world alight. Then, when they repeated those heroics against Australia in the Super 8's after a spell-binding 60 from Rahmanullah Gurbaz, fans back home in Kabul could barely believe what they were witnessing. That victory against the Baggy Greens was already the greatest in Afghan cricket history, and they knew that a win against Bangladesh in their final Super 8 contest would secure them a spot in the semifinals.
Afghanistan versus Bangladesh. Winner advances; loser devastated. Australia's fate was placed in the hands of a minnow they'd barely acknowledge existed twenty years ago. Afghanistan posted 115-5 before rain, with the revised DLS target setting Bangladesh 114 to win in 19 overs. Gurbaz top-scored again with 43 off 55, anchoring under immense pressure, despite his side collapsing from 84-1 to 93-5 in just 11 deliveries. Then Rashid Khan delivered his masterclass.
The captain claimed 4-23 with the ball, ripping through Bangladesh's batting with leg-spin wizardry that made him cricket's most recognizable Afghan. Naveen-ul-Haq matched him with 4-26, sealing victory with two wickets in consecutive balls in the penultimate over—both LBW, both plumb, both sending Bangladesh batsmen trudging off, knowing they'd fallen short. Afghanistan through. History made.
South Africa would ultimately prove to be one bridge too many in the semifinals as the Proteas secured a dominant victory. But Afghanistan's run to the final-four will go down in history as the T20 World Cup's greatest ever underdog effort, one that the world will never forget.
