Credit: England Cricket
England have been the creators of the game and the producers of some really class, high class world beating talents. There's been one phenomenal cricketer after another that has hailed from England in the form of Sir Jack Hobbs, Ian Botham, Freddie Flintoff, Jimmy Anderson, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Strauss, Sir Alastair Cook to the ranks of the greats like Ben Stokes and Joe Root. But while His Majesty's team has seldom been shy at producing legends, they've also maintained proximity with achingly bagging defeats in the longest or purest form of the game, as one calls it.
And truth be told, their is the story of some sorry looking scorecharts with England also copping up some un-memorable lowest margins of defeat by runs. One among them recently shone bright, albeit for the visiting Indian team led by Shubman Gill. So which have been the lowest margins of defeat for England in Tests by runs?
Here is the list of the lowest margins of defeat for England in Tests by runs
Loss to India at The Oval by 6 runs in 2025
The fifth and final Test match reached the ultimate day at The Oval and India, left England utterly spellbound, thanks to a phenomenal display of pace bowling with Siraj, now no more in Bumrah's shadow, producing a live wire of a spell to leave England desperately short by 6 runs in the end. But this defeat that England endured was also due to useful contributions by the entire Indian team with Karun Nair finally scoring useful runs, Jaiswal managing a graceful century and Akash Deep supporting the tall bowling order in which even Prasidh Krishna was a star. A real star. However, Siraj crushed England's dominance, thanks to a really dominant show with the red ball that culminated in 9 wickets.
Loss to New Zealand by 1-run in Wellington in 2023
A loss in Test match cricket can be borne with a relative amount of ease if you have been heavily outperformed by a seriously imposing opponent or should one say, a challenging team that's really hard to beat.
But what do you do when you are outsmarted by just 1-run. A 1 run defeat in Test match cricket is exactly what England endured when they suffered a loss to New Zealand when playing in Wellington in 2023.
As a matter of fact, England versus New Zealand in Wellington in 2023 has become since its completion a keyword of sorts in search engines around the world with fans hovering around the puzzling scorecard that somehow saw England at the wrong side of the result.
After Harry Brook and Joe Root pounded the Kiwi bowlers for lots of runs, taking the team's score to 435, New Zealand responded with 209. Just 209. There was never going to be a doubt about who was going to dominate, which is when, after following on, Williamson thudded a ton and Latham fired a useful fifty. Conway, Blundell and Mitchell too, joined in and scored useful runs.
The team that failed to touch 250 in its first attempt, went to 483. And then came in Wagner with his chin music, taking 4 useful and decisive wickets to draw the Kiwis back on top of the game with England left harrowingly shy of just 1 run in the end.
Loss to Pakistan by 22 runs in Multan in 2005
Twenty years have passed since England registered that unfathomable and sudden 22-run defeat to Pakistan in which in the decisive moments of the Test, Danish Kaneria, then a prominent spinner with the hosts, removed both Ian Bell and Andrew Strauss to give his Pakistan team the advantage in the fourth innings of the game. Eventually, all England could manage were 175 runs and that's about it.
In that particular contest, Marcus Trescothick and Salman Butt dominated the proceedings with the bat with stellar hundreds, the English left hander striking 193 in a 305 ball stay at the wicket. On the other hand, Butt ruled the scoring charts scoring 122 and 74 in the game, and thus, 196 runs on the whole.
But the contest was shaped by red ball bowling and excellently so on the part of Pakistan who ultimately tamed the powerful English side.
FAQs
Which is the smallest margin of defeat for England in Test cricket?
New Zealand beat England by just 1 run two years ago while playing a Test at their home.
By what margin did England lose to India at The Oval in 2025?
India won the contest by a margin of just 6 runs and England saw Chris Woakes stranded at the other end with Atkinon losing his stumps to Siraj.
