There’s getting shit done and then there’s getting shit done. South African top order batsman AB De Villers – the current captain of his national ODI team, and the world’s top ranked batsman in the format – casually managed to not only break, but annihilate the record for the fastest ever One Day International century in a game against the West Indies at the Wanderers stadium in Johannesburg.
De Villiers innings comprised of 149 runs off an astonishing 44 deliveries, with the century coming in a world record 31 balls, far eclipsing the previous mark set by New Zealand‘s Corey Anderson who reached triple figures off of 36. De Villiers also set the world record for the fastest 50 ever achieved in an ODI in the process, bludgeoning the first half century off just 16 deliveries.
De Villiers came to the crease in the 39th over of the innings with the score already at 1/247, following centuries posted by both openers in Hashim Amla and Rilee Rossouw.
What followed was an astonishing display of improvisation and hitting, with De Villiers bludgeoning an innings that included 9 fours and, incredibly, 16 sixes. Such was the ferocity and unyielding of the innings that by the time he reached his century, De Villiers had only absorbed 4 dot balls.
4-2-1-1-4-6-4-6-6-0-2-2-1lb-1-6-6-6-4-6-1-4-1-1-0-4-4-0-6-4-6-6 – @ABdeVilliers17‘ remarkable innings! pic.twitter.com/egeqFCgxXX
— ICC (@ICC) January 18, 2015
The knock helped propel South Africa to an innings total of 2/439 – their all-time highest ODI score, eclipsing the previous mark set at the same ground in an infamously wild game against Australia in 2006 which saw the Aussies bat first and set a mammoth total of 434, only for South Africa to successfully mow it down.
With form as hot as De Villiers’ is right now, the looming Cricket World Cup just got that much more enticing.
Photo: Gallo Images via Getty Images.
