Ireland’s cricketer Kevin O’Brien celebrates after scoring a century (100 runs) during the ICC Cricket World cup match between England and Ireland at The M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on March 2, 2011. AFP PHOTO/ DIBYANGSHU SARKAR
CWC 2019: The fastest World Cup century in history
One-Day International cricket lends itself to blisteringly fast scoring and it will be a surprise if the mark for the fastest World Cup century doesn’t fall in 2019. The benchmark outside of the World Cup was set up by AB de Villiers when he blazed his way to 100 in just 31 balls against the […]
Ireland’s cricketer Kevin O’Brien celebrates after scoring a century (100 runs) during the ICC Cricket World cup match between England and Ireland at The M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on March 2, 2011. AFP PHOTO/ DIBYANGSHU SARKAR
One-Day International cricket lends itself to blisteringly fast scoring and it will be a surprise if the mark for the fastest World Cup century doesn’t fall in 2019.
The benchmark outside of the World Cup was set up by AB de Villiers when he blazed his way to 100 in just 31 balls against the West Indies at the Wanderers in January 2015.
De Villiers’ world record comes in fully 19 balls under the best effort in the world Cup.
Here we look at the five fastest centuries in the Cricket World Cup.
5 John Davison (Canada) 67 balls vs West Indies Centurion, 2003
There will be no associate nations at the 2019 World Cup but they have certainly contributed to the World Cup flavour over the years.
In 2003 John Davison blasted his way to what was then the record for the fastest World Cup century on a belter of a Supersport Park pitch.
Davison’s effort went largely unsupported on the day and Canada were well beaten by the West Indies.
4 Matthew Hayden (Australia) 66 balls vs South Africa St Kitts, 2007
Hayden made a career out of tormenting South Africa and was particularly severe on Shaun Pollock in the Caribbean. Hayden and opening partner Adam Gilchrist got Australia off to a flying start.
Australia won the game and went on to win the tournament with Gilchrist smashing what still stands as the fastest hundred in the farce of a final against Sri Lanka.
3 AB de Villiers (South Africa) 55 balls vs West Indies Sydney, 2015
Two of the three of the fastest centuries in World Cup history came in the most recent tournament.
De Villiers knock was remarkable not for how quickly he got to 100 but how incredible his jump to 150 was. Mister 360 faced just seven dot balls in his entire innings, he reached his hundred in the 48th over and went past 150 in the 50th over which he plundered for 30 runs.
The innings ranks as one of the best ever played at the World Cup with many ranking it ahead of the double hundreds achieved by Chris Gayle and Martin Guptill.
2 Glen Maxwell (Australia) 51 balls vs Sri Lanka Sydney, 2015
The Aussie bruiser had never made an ODI hundred at the time despite having reached the 90s three times.
Maxwell saw the ball and he hit the ball in his trademark fashion. The following year he blazed a 49-ball hundred against Sri Lanka in a T20I in Kandy on his way to 145*.
Maxwell is the only player in the top five who has been named in a 2019 World Cup squad.
1 Kevin O’Brien (Ireland) 50 balls vs England Bangalore, 2011
Kevin O’Brien wrote his name large across the history of cricket with his incredible knock against England in 2011.
The fastest World Cup hundred was made that much sweeter for how it came. Ireland had their backs to the wall chasing 328 to win, they slipped
111 for 5 wickets in 24 overs when Kevin O’Brien walked out to bat.
At the time the mark for the fastest World Cup century was Hayden’s 66 ball ton against South Africa.
Fastest ODI centuries of all time
1 AB De Villiers (SA) 31 balls vs West Indies at the Wanderers 18/01/2015
2 Corey Anderson (NZ) 36 balls vs West Indies in Queenstown 01/01/2014
3 Shahid Afridi (PAK) 37 balls vs Sri Lanka in Nairobi 04/10/1996
4 Mark Boucher (SA) 44 balls vs Zimbabwe in Potchefstroom 20/09/2006
5 Brian Lara (WI) 45 balls vs Bangladesh in Dhaka 09/10/1999
