We close by looking at statistics for World Cup matches alone, since a fair number of high scoring rates mentioned earlier were in relatively less important or highly one-sided matches. Perhaps this would give a better idea of performance in more important matches. Perhaps the Champions Trophy matches could also be added.
We start with the highest averages in World Cup matches (minimum 20 innings):
de Villiers heads this list although MJ Clarke and IVA Richards are just behind.
Now we look as
Highest strike rates in World Cup matches (minimum 500 balls faced):
Here we have McCullum followed by de Villiers and Kapil.
Then there are links in Cricinfo’s records section for Fastest centuries in ODIs:
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/211608.html
That link is constantly updated. This is what it looked like on 26/05/2018:
Note that it took over 17 years to move from Afridi’s 37-ball effort in 1996 to Anderson’s improvement to 36 balls in 2014. But de Villiers lowered the bar to 31 balls a year later.
For World Cup matches alone, the best efforts are 50 balls by KJ O’Brien in 2011, 51 by GJ Maxwell in 2015 and de Villiers again with 52 balls in 2015.
Similarly there is a link for the fastest 50. Like in the table above, it refers to the first 50 runs in the innings although the number of balls for the second or later 50 runs may be quite different.
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/284095.html
This is what it looked like on 25/05/2018:
The record had been stuck at Jayasuriya’s 17 balls since 1996. de Villiers lowered it to 16 balls after almost 19 years. After that Kusal Perera and Guptill also equalled the old 17-ball record.
In World Cup matches, the fastest 50s have been in 18 balls by McCullum (2015), 19 by Mc Cullum again in 2015 and 20 by AD Mathews also in 2015.
abn397 