Quite amazingly it was after more than five years England tasted success against their archrivals in ODIs.
Australia had last lost to England in the shorter version of the game in a World Series match in January 1999. Since then England suffered defeat in 14 consecutive matches before winning this one.
The following table lists the longest losing sequences in ODIs by a side against a particular country.
The Australia - Zimbabwe instance at the top of the table deserves a special mention.
Zimbabwe defeated Australia in the very first encounter between the two countries. Since then Australia have not lost a single match against Zimbabwe.
In fact their winning sequence came to a halt only by a no-result match at Melbourne on 29 Jan 2004. Australia has won three more matches v Zimbabwe since then taking their tally to 25 wins out of 25 result-oriented matches!
Mts | Winner | Loser | Started on | Ended on |
22 | Australia | Zimbabwe | 16 Jun 1983 | 29 Jan 2004 |
14 | Australia | Sri Lanka | 23 Jan 1985 | 15 Aug 1992 |
14 | South Africa | Pakistan | 10 Jan 1995 | 28 Mar 2000 |
14 | Australia | England | 26 Jan 1999 | 21 Sep 2004 |
12 | Australia | New Zealand | 07 Jan 1988 | 18 Dec 1990 |
11 | Australia | West Indies | 30 May 1999 | 25 May 2003 |
11 | India | New Zealand | 25 Jan 1986 | 01 Mar 1990 |
11 | India | Bangladesh | 27 Oct 1988 | 21 Jul 2004+ |
11 | Pakistan | Zimbabwe | 24 Nov 1998 | 04 Mar 2003 |
11 | Sri Lanka | Bangladesh | 02 Apr 1986 | 23 Jul 2004+ |
11 | Pakistan | Bangladesh | 02 Jun 2000 | 29 Jul 2004+ |
10 | West Indies | Sri Lanka | 07 Jun 1975 | 19 Oct 1989 |
10 | Zimbabwe | Kenya | 27 Feb 1996 | 08 Dec 2002 |
10 | Zimbabwe | Bangladesh | 11 Oct 1997 | 10 Mar 2004 |
Note: Zimbabwe's winning run against Kenya came to rest at Harare on 08 Dec 2002 with a no-result match. After this Zimbabwe also defeated Kenya in two more matches making 12 wins out of 12 results oriented matches.
More from rediff