Spain now hold a cricket world record that belonged to Waugh and Ponting's Australia

Spain, who are currently competing in the Men's T20 World Cup Sub Regional Europe Qualifiers in Southern Finland, have won all of their fixtures in the campaign so far. Their most recent victory came against Bulgaria, on August 18, in which they chased 60 runs in just 29 deliveries with nine wickets to spare.

However, when they beat Finland in their opening fixture of the tournament on August 14, they went past Australia in the record books - registering their 21st consecutive victory in international cricket, which is one more than the previous record held by the all-conquering Australian side of the 2000s. The following three victories against Isle of Man, Luxembourg and Bulgaria have now taken that tally to 24.

In their run of 24 consecutive international victories, Spain have played a T20I series each against the Isle of Man and Jersey, two series against Croatia, which were separated by the ICC Men's T20 World Cup Sub Regional Europe Qualifier in 2024. They finished second in the tournament, with an abandoned game.

The record for the most consecutive international wins was previously held by Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting’s Australia, who registered 20 consecutive victories across formats (Tests and ODIs). Australia’s run, which began on January 11, 2003, against England in Hobart, went on till the third Test against the West Indies in Bridgetown in May 2003. The streak was finally broken when the Waugh-led side lost to the West Indies in the fourth Test.

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En route to their previously-held record, Australia were unbeaten in the 2003 ODI World Cup after a tri-series involving England and Sri Lanka, where they won all the games, before switching formats to register three Test wins against the West Indies.

Ponting led them through the ODI tri-series and the World Cup, while Waugh was in-charge of the longest format. In their run of 20 consecutive wins, Australia played 17 ODIs and three Tests.

Most consecutive international wins across formats

Image credits: Spain Cricket

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