Top 10 Lowest Score in IPL History: When Giants Fell & Bowlers Roared

The Indian Premier League is built on a promise — sixes flying, totals climbing, stadiums roaring. But sometimes, the script flips. Instead of 200-plus thrillers, you get scorecards that look broken. Single digits. Duck parades. Panic in the dugout. The top 10 lowest score in IPL history isn’t a list of failures — it’s a gallery of collapses, ambushes, and bowlers who smelled blood.

And let’s be honest: as much as we love power-hitting, there’s a strange thrill in watching wickets tumble. It’s raw. It’s messy. And it reminds us that T20 is still a game of skill, not just muscle.

Let’s walk through the lowest totals ever recorded — and why each one still echoes through IPL folklore.

The Collapse Diaries: The IPL’s Strikingly Sharp Scoring Averages

There is always a story behind the reason why low-scoring games occur. They highlight streaks of pressure, cause for concern, exceptional spells, poor shot selection, or occasionally the odd tempo of the game. T20 matches are not like ODIs or Tests. There is no time to settle into a rhythm. If there is one early collapse, the rest of the team collapses like dominoes.

In these heavily dominated matches, scoring is such an abrupt process that the teams do not get a chance to recover. It is reminiscent of a car that is skidding off the track. At this point, it becomes irreversible.

Whether it is a result of a fierce opening spell or a spicy pitch, these matches are windows into what happens when strategy goes out the window and instinct kicks in.

Top 10 Lowest Score in IPL History (2008–2025)

Here’s the updated list of the lowest team totals ever recorded in IPL history. These aren’t just statistics — every line on this table is a story of stunned fans, disbelieving captains, and bowlers running riot.

Rank	Team	Score	Overs	Opponent	Year	Venue
1	Royal Challengers Bangalore	49	9.4	Kolkata Knight Riders	2017	Eden Gardens
2	Rajasthan Royals	58	15.1	Royal Challengers Bangalore	2009	Cape Town
3	Delhi Daredevils	66	13.4	Mumbai Indians	2017	Feroz Shah Kotla
4	Delhi Capitals	67	17.1	Kings XI Punjab	2017	Mohali
5	Kolkata Knight Riders	67	15.2	Mumbai Indians	2008	Wankhede
6	Royal Challengers Bangalore	70	17.1	Chennai Super Kings	2019	Chennai
7	Royal Challengers Bangalore	70	16.1	Rajasthan Royals	2014	Abu Dhabi
8	Kings XI Punjab	73	15.5	Rising Pune Supergiant	2017	Pune
9	Kochi Tuskers Kerala	74	16.3	Deccan Chargers	2011	Kochi
10	Chennai Super Kings	79	15.2	Mumbai Indians	2013	Wankhede

#1: The 49 All-Out – A Meltdown Etched in Memory

There’s no talking about the top 10 lowest score in IPL history without pausing at the lowest of them all — RCB’s 49 all-out. It didn’t just set a record. It set the tone for what can happen when a batting order implodes.

It was 2017, and the venue was Eden Gardens — a pitch known for being fair. But RCB looked anything but balanced. Chasing just 132 against KKR, a lineup with Gayle, Kohli, and de Villiers collapsed in just 9.4 overs. No one crossed double digits. Not even extras.

What made this special was the speed of the collapse. Four wickets down before the powerplay. Middle-order unsure. Tail blown away. KKR’s bowlers — especially Nathan Coulter-Nile and Chris Woakes — bowled with venom.

It wasn’t just a defeat. It was a dissection.

When Royals Crumbled: Rajasthan’s Forgettable 58

Back in 2009, the IPL was in South Africa, and the conditions weren’t as batting-friendly. But that doesn’t explain Rajasthan Royals’ 58 all-out against RCB.

Defending champions at the time, RR looked clueless against Praveen Kumar and Anil Kumble. Batsmen misjudged length, and the bounce caught them by surprise. What should have been a par 140 track turned into a nightmare.

RCB chased it down easily, and Kumble’s smile said it all — class trumps chaos.

Wicket-by-Wicket Breakdown: RCB’s 49 All-Out

Here’s a closer look at how that infamous RCB innings played out — over by over, collapse by collapse.

Fall of Wicket	Score	Batsman	Bowler
1st	7	Mandeep Singh	Umesh Yadav
2nd	9	Virat Kohli	Nathan Coulter-Nile
3rd	11	AB de Villiers	Coulter-Nile
4th	21	Kedar Jadhav	Chris Woakes
5th	31	Shane Watson	Woakes
6th	35	Stuart Binny	Woakes
7th	36	Pawan Negi	Nathan Coulter-Nile
8th	39	Samuel Badree	Sunil Narine
9th	47	Tymal Mills	Narine
10th	49	Yuzvendra Chahal	Colin de Grandhomme

That’s what you call system failure.

What These Games Teach Us About IPL Pressure

If there’s a pattern to be found across the top 10 lowest scores in IPL history, it’s this — pressure does strange things. Even the best batters lose their sense of timing when wickets fall early. And no T20 innings recovers from a 4/15 scenario. You panic. You push. You perish.

Interestingly, these collapses often come after:

• A slow powerplay start
  
• Over-dependence on top order
  
• Lack of clarity in chasing middling targets
  
• Underestimating spin (especially on dry tracks)
  

The 2017 season alone gave us three entries on the lowest-score list. That wasn’t a coincidence — it was a period where bowling strategies matured faster than batting line-ups adapted.

Did the IPL Rules Impact Low Scores?

Absolutely. Rule changes around the impact player, fielding restrictions, and DRS availability have all influenced how teams plan innings. But often, collapses happen not because of the rules, but because of mindset. Teams built for 200+ don’t always adapt when a pitch demands 140.

And then there’s the flip side — teams resting players before playoffs, or underestimating struggling squads. That complacency leads to the kind of scoreboard that ends with your dressing room in stunned silence.

Most Common Factors Behind IPL Batting Collapses

Factor	Frequency (Top 10 Matches)	Notable Example
Top-order failure	10/10	RCB vs KKR (2017)
Seam-friendly conditions	7/10	RR vs RCB (2009 in Cape Town)
Middle-order inexperience	6/10	KXIP vs RPS (2017)
Spin choke in middle overs	4/10	DC vs MI (2017)
Chasing under pressure	6/10	CSK vs MI (2013)

The data doesn’t lie. Winning in T20 is not just about firepower — it’s about temperament.

The Rebound: What Happened After These Collapses?

Some teams never recovered that season. Others used it as a wake-up call. RCB’s 49? It lit a fire. Rajasthan’s 58? They restructured their entire batting order. Delhi’s twin collapses in 2017? The birth of a new core featuring Rishabh Pant and Prithvi Shaw.

Sometimes, the worst moments become the turning points. And that’s the emotional backbone of the IPL — drama that leads to reinvention.

Final Word: Technological Transformation in Sports Analytics

Clearly, the IPL features entertainment, 200-run chases, and massive sixes. However, its allure goes beyond the IPL’s unpredictable nature. On any given day, the IPL could witness the worst score in its entire history. And to any follower, those spectacular moments mark the most eventful nights for Twitter, chroniclers, and players to take center stage.

No matter how shabby it might appear, it remains straightforward.