Fastest century in odi: Complete Insider Record & Analysis

The roar started before the ball even cleared the ropes. At the Wanderers, with the Highveld air carrying everything a little farther and the crowd clapping in syncopated waves, a right-hander stood tall and turned the most difficult thing in cricket—hitting top-tier quicks with contemptuous repeatability—into a rhythmic exhibition. He swung, not swiped; he created angles rather than premeditating slog-sweeps; he trusted wrists and a short backlift; and in a blur that left even seasoned broadcasters grinning like children, he reached a hundred in 31 balls. That afternoon did not just reset the record books for the fastest century in ODI history—it reset the way players and coaches think about tempo, phases, and the art of acceleration.

ODI batting speeds come in cycles. The early looseners of one era become the standard in the next. But among all spikes in the curve—pinch-hitters tearing into the first 15 overs, power-hitters in modern two-new-ball conditions—certain knocks feel elemental. They alter the grammar of the format. This is the story of those sprints to three figures: who owns the fastest ODI century, how the list stacks up across countries and tournaments, and, more importantly, what makes such an innings possible in the first place.

Record Box: Fastest Century in ODI

Record-holder:

AB de Villiers

Balls taken:

31

Opposition:

West Indies

Venue:

Johannesburg

Context:

Middle-overs frenzy; 360-degree hitting; South Africa posted a total well past 400

That’s your headline and the benchmark for every “quickest century in ODI” debate. It’s not just the number—it’s the method. Reverse laps over short third, pick-up pulls off good length, a fierce high elbow through cover, and the patience to let the ball come. Some innings are about brute force; that one was about a metronomic surge, a superstar choosing every delivery’s destination.

Top 10 Fastest ODI Centuries: The Definitive List

Below is a verified core of the fastest hundreds in ODI history. The essentials matter here: balls to hundred, opponent, where it happened, and a short note to lock the memory.

1. AB de Villiers — 31 balls — vs West Indies — Johannesburg — The reference point for all tempo in ODIs
2. Corey Anderson — 36 balls — vs West Indies — Queenstown — Left-hander, heavy bat arc, small ground, clean air
3. Shahid Afridi — 37 balls — vs Sri Lanka — Nairobi — The original detonation; 11 sixes and a myth born
4. Glenn Maxwell — 40 balls — vs Netherlands — Delhi — World Cup setting; reverse sweeps and straight hits on demand
5. Mark Boucher — 44 balls — vs Zimbabwe — Potchefstroom — A keeper’s knife-through-butter cameo
6. Brian Lara — 45 balls — vs Bangladesh — Dhaka — Hands like silk; everything struck mid-shaft, dead center
7. Shahid Afridi — 45 balls — vs India — Kanpur — Chasing heat; the swagger, the shape, the sheer nerve
8. Jesse Ryder — 46 balls — vs West Indies — Queenstown — Upright stance, front-foot launch pads, flatter trajectory
9. Jos Buttler — 46 balls — vs Pakistan — Nottingham — Lag, whip, brutal width management; England’s white-ball revolution distilled
10. Sanath Jayasuriya — 48 balls — vs Pakistan — Singapore — The original powerplay outlaw, against live pace on a Singapore deck

Close behind:

• Aiden Markram — 49 balls — vs Sri Lanka — Delhi — New-age hybrid: classical swing plus T20 wrists
• Kevin O’Brien — 50 balls — vs England — Bengaluru — The chase miracle; the day an Associate giant-killing got its finest chapter
• Virat Kohli — 52 balls — vs Australia — Jaipur — Timing over violence; chasing with chess-player precision

Every number above carries context—conditions, match situation, boundary sizes, new-ball behavior. The story of the fastest hundred in ODI history is a story of reading all of that faster than the fielding side can react.

The Long Arc: How ODI Tempo Evolved To Make The Impossible Routine

• The pinch-hitter era: Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana taught the cricket world that the first few overs were not sacred ground. Those early charges created a template: left-hand power, inside-out hitting, and fearless intent against swing and bounce. That 48-ball hundred in Singapore was not accidental—it was a manifesto.
• The two-new-ball era: With a new ball from each end, batters gained a paradoxical edge. Yes, the ball stayed newer for longer. But it also came on to the bat flatter for longer, reducing reverse swing and upping the reward for any batter who could muscle through cover or flat-bat cross-batted hits without losing shape.
• The T20 infusion: Technique didn’t disappear; it changed shape. The scoop and the reverse sweep migrated from novelty to compulsory skill. Glenn Maxwell’s repertoire is not circus; it’s geometry—how quickly can you find a gap with a pre-meditation that still stays reactive? Jos Buttler’s bat path is a masterclass in lag and leverage.
• Fielding restrictions and fitness: Five fielders in the ring through chunks of the innings, plus boundary riders split oddly for right-left combos, created little windows. And then there’s the athleticism: modern batters are spring-loaded. They rotate strike under pressure rather than treating drives as pauses between sixes. Oddly enough, rapid ODI hundreds are often built on frenetic singles and twos disguised by the big moments.

How You Actually Score A 40–50 Ball Hundred

It sounds like a jackpot. It’s closer to a robotic routine.

• Powerplay math: Elite batters treat the first 6–10 balls like reconnaissance. From ball 10 to ball 30, the big hits come in clusters—two balls in an over, sometimes three, with the rest milked for ones. That yields roughly 50–60 in that span without visible risk spikes.
• Length hunting: Balls at hip height vanish. Anything wider than 8–10 inches outside off becomes a carve; anything at the stumps becomes a pick-up flick. The fastest ODI centuries are not about playing everything; they’re about ignoring half the menu.
• Timing versus power: AB de Villiers at the Wanderers is the prime exhibit. Many of his sixes sounded like lofted drives, not slogs. The bat face stayed neutral longer. Weight transfer did the rest.
• Field reading: Observe how the best finishers manipulate third and fine-leg. If there’s a leg-side trap, they pierce off-side. If point is packed, they go behind square. The mental map shifts every two deliveries.
• Risk insulation: Quickest hundreds are not error-free—they’re calculated. The mis-hits go dead-straight. The shanks go over cover, not to it. Batters achieve this by aiming high and central rather than hyper-specific lines that bring deep fielders into play.

Tournament Lens: Fastest Century in ODI World Cup

A World Cup furnace changes everything. Nerves are raw, analytics are thick, and each team carries precise matchup plans. To blast a lightning-century here is a different level.

• Fastest World Cup century: Glenn Maxwell, 40 balls, against Netherlands in Delhi. It wasn’t just fast; it was cold-blooded. The batters before him had built a platform. Maxwell arrived in launch mode—reverse sweeps first over, power down the ground, then pick-ups so clean that midwicket didn’t move.

Behind that mark sit performances that, for long, defined the category:

• Aiden Markram’s 49-ball spree, also in Delhi, showcased a modern template: minimal premeditation, maximal repeatability.
• Kevin O’Brien’s 50-ball hundred for Ireland in Bengaluru remains the apex of a chase miracle. Conditions can be belters in that part of the world, but pressure tends to slow hands. O’Brien’s never did.

The World Cup filter matters because it cross-examines technique under lights, against bowling plans designed with world-class analysts. Every four in those innings was a pre-read; every six, a recalculation executed perfectly.

Context Angles That Change The Record Conversation

Fastest ODI century while chasing

Shahid Afridi’s 45-ball detonation at Kanpur arrived under the lights of a chase and remains the touchstone for speed with a scoreboard to hunt. If you’re swiping your memory for chase mayhem, Kevin O’Brien’s 50-ball century is the other lodestar—the day the term “Associate” felt like a lazy label for a giant-killer.

Fastest ODI century as captain

AB de Villiers’ 31-ball thunderclap came with an armband on his sleeve. Captaincy in modern white-ball cricket isn’t a burden if your role is clarity. AB’s rule that day: move the game well beyond par in 15 minutes.

Fastest ODI century by batting position

• Middle-order power: Most entries in the sub-50 bracket come from No. 4 to No. 6. The platform is already there; the ball is older but flying; the field is spread in predictable ways.
• Openers: Jesse Ryder’s 46-ball bullet and Sanath Jayasuriya’s 48-ball hammer remain the openers’ high-water marks in the “sub-50” club. Openers deal with swing and a crowded cordon; to beat those and still get there in 46–48 balls is a different skill stack.

Venue Stories That Keep Coming Up

• Johannesburg (Wanderers): Fast outfield, honest bounce, evening carry. The Highveld plays fair to hitters who meet the ball late. Add shortish square boundaries and the roar of a knowledgeable crowd, and you’ve got a theatre purpose-built for a record like 31 balls.
• Queenstown: Small ground, cold air that can hold shape, and pitches that sit up. The Anderson-Ryder double carnage was less a quirk and more the perfect confluence of left-handers, arc power, and a ground that rewards flat hits.
• Delhi: Two of the quickest World Cup hundreds in the same tournament and at the same venue tells you about the surface: true bounce, predictable pace, and a square that tempts behind-the-wicket adventure.
• Nairobi Gymkhana: Dry, low, but short. Afridi’s 37-ball original was a lesson in hitting on the up. He met everything out front with a blade that hardly wobbled after impact.

By Country: Fastest ODI Hundreds That Define Each Side’s DNA

South Africa: Brains with brawn

• DNA: Power with brain. They don’t just hit; they choose the right balls to hit.
• Landmarks: AB’s 31 is the crown, Boucher’s 44 the surprise that proves the depth of strike power. Boucher’s game was about hands; the day he found rhythm, even length balls disappeared. Aiden Markram’s sub-50 World Cup hundred is the new-school South African way: classical movement, uncluttered intent.

New Zealand: Craft with leverage

• DNA: Crafty leverage. Batters build still heads and use small grounds cleverly.
• Landmarks: Anderson and Ryder own that Queenstown day—left-hand angles, wind, and boundary awareness.

Pakistan: Unapologetic audacity

• DNA: Impulse and instinct, yet not without calculation. When they ride a wave, no team hits farther.
• Landmarks: Shahid Afridi owns two of the fastest ten: 37 and 45 balls. Both knocks were the same player in different moods—one raw, one seasoned. Pakistan’s white-ball lineage celebrates risk-takers. The fastest hundred conversation always finds space for their swagger.

Australia: System plus a maverick

• DNA: Structured violence. Their hitters drill range and repeatability until it becomes second nature.
• Landmarks: Glenn Maxwell’s 40-ball World Cup special set a new Australian standard. For generations, Australia built ODI innings like scaffolding; Maxwell turned a blueprint into fireworks without compromising percentages.

England: Modern methods, modern speeds

• DNA: Data-driven aggression. Range is practiced like a golf swing with TrackMan.
• Landmarks: Jos Buttler, 46 balls, at Nottingham, is the poster of England’s white-ball revolution—range-hitting, a ruthless eye for width, and lightning wrists. Others have sprinted near that mark, but Buttler’s remains the cleanest England example of speed with control.

Sri Lanka: The original disruptors

• DNA: Hand speed and bravery. Even their touch artists can accelerate if they see the gap early.
• Landmarks: Sanath Jayasuriya, 48 balls, sits like a king in Sri Lanka’s ODI mythology. He didn’t wait for mistake balls; he forced them by bending field placements to his will.

West Indies: Flair from the wrists outward

• DNA: Flair with hands leading. When the groove clicks, wrists do the heavy lifting.
• Landmarks: Brian Lara’s 45 balls in Dhaka is a shot-making tutorial. Lara rarely muscled; he used angles and late hands. West Indies cricket, often equated with muscle memory, had here the finest example of pure touch sprinting to three figures.

India: Acceleration by timing

• DNA: Timing and chase acumen. They don’t always brute-force; they find seams in fields.
• Landmarks: Virat Kohli’s 52-ball hundred at Jaipur remains India’s fastest ODI century. It was an innings that used the field like a chessboard, converting good-length balls into pure timing strokes through and past cover. India’s fastest ODI century didn’t need a slog; it needed a clean swing and a running machine.

Ireland: The chase miracle

• DNA: The chase miracle.
• Landmarks: Kevin O’Brien’s 50-ball century against England in Bengaluru is the bedrock of Ireland’s white-ball lore. It was audacious and clinical in equal measure—the rare combination needed to turn a chase from hopeless to historic.

Note: Many teams boast rapid centuries in the 50–65 ball band that are culturally important even if they aren’t in the global top tier. Those innings often arrive in tricky chases or on slower pitches—contexts where speed is measured as much by match situation as by balls faced.

The Hidden Mechanics Behind A 31–50 Ball Hundred

• Visual cues: Elite hitters identify release points early. A wider load-up from a seamer telegraphs slower pace. A finger change at the seam hints at cutters. Fastest ODI centuries are built on micro-reads.
• Base and balance: Watch the feet. In these innings, the front foot lands early and softly; the back foot stays live, allowing last-moment balance adjustments. The core is tight. Mis-hits still travel.
• Hitting arcs by line:
  • Off-stump ball: inside-out over extra cover or a straight open-face lash through point.
  • Middle-stump ball: whip through midwicket or a wristy, straight-batted loft.
  • Wide ball: carve between cover sweeper and point, or a reverse ramp if third is too fine.
  • At the body: pick-up flick into the wind, using the bowler’s pace.
• Momentum management: Big overs matter more than big shots. A 20-run over flips the in-field pattern, makes captains defensive, and suddenly even good deliveries find gaps. The fastest hundreds usually hide a 24 or a 26 somewhere mid-innings.
• Partnering: The silent helper is the other batter. Quick singles off the first or last ball of an over lock the set batter on strike. Communication is manic and precise.

What The Bowlers Try—And Why It Often Fails

• Into the pitch with pace-off: On slower decks, cutters die in the pitch and force mishits. On true decks, they sit up. If the length isn’t perfect, a good hitter can bring square boundaries into play.
• Wide yorkers: The right ball, wrong boundary. One mis-executed wide-yorker becomes slot length outside off, and modern batters treat that like a free-hit. Miss by an inch and it’s twelve instead of one.
• The surprise bouncer: Works only if it’s aimed at the ear and has enough venom. Anything at chest height with a bit of width is a gift. The best hitters ride the bounce and target the short square fence.
• Ring squeezes: Captains bring fielders up to cut singles. But if you’re dealing with a de Villiers, a Buttler, a Maxwell, a squeeze is an invitation for a scoop or a flick into the blindside.

Why Certain Grounds Keep Hosting Lightning Hundreds

• Altitude and carry: Johannesburg sits high; Delhi’s modern surfaces play true. Queenstown’s size is a factor. Nairobi’s straight boundaries once felt in reach for anyone who met the ball early. When conditions offer predictable carry, the risk for vertical hitting drops.
• Outfields: Lightning-fast grass turns well-timed drives into fours without over-hitting. That helps batters keep their shape, avoiding the across-the-line risk that drags them into top edges.
• Sightlines: The best knocks often come at venues with clean stands and straight lines. Sight is everything at high pace. Cluttered backdrops hurt batters far more than bowlers.

The “Since the Modern White-Ball Shift” View

Over the last era of ODI cricket, as training, analysis, and T20 skills retooled the 50-over format, sub-50-ball hundreds moved from freakish to feasible. It still takes a day of fluency, but the baseline skills are no longer rare: range-hitting, late adjustments, and the courage to play the unorthodox without making it look forced.

• The Maxwell proof: Short backlift, long levers, and willingness to begin ramps early in the spell.
• The Markram template: Classical technique first, then a switch flipped to T20 patterns.
• The Buttler doctrine: Hold shape, align the blade late, exploit width like a surgeon.

A Deeper Country-by-Country Look At ODI Speed Genes

South Africa

• DNA: Power with brain. They don’t just hit; they choose the right balls to hit.
• Landmarks: AB’s 31 is the crown, Boucher’s 44 the shock entry that tells you the bench has hitters. The country’s system breeds batters who are technically sound but not afraid to go aerial early.

New Zealand

• DNA: Crafty leverage. Batters build still heads and use small grounds cleverly.
• Landmarks: Anderson and Ryder own that Queenstown day—left-hand angles, wind, and boundary awareness.

Pakistan

• DNA: Impulse and instinct, yet not without calculation. When they ride a wave, no team hits farther.
• Landmarks: Afridi’s twin entries are core curriculum in the fastest ODI century conversation.

Australia

• DNA: Structured violence. Their hitters drill range and repeatability until it becomes second nature.
• Landmarks: Maxwell’s 40-ball World Cup statement is the new north star for Australian ODI acceleration.

England

• DNA: Data-driven aggression. Range is practiced like a golf swing with TrackMan.
• Landmarks: Buttler’s 46-ball hundred is the blueprint—width is a crime; anything slot gets punished into hospitality suites.

Sri Lanka

• DNA: Hand speed and bravery. Even their touch artists can accelerate if they see the gap early.
• Landmarks: Jayasuriya remains the patron saint of white-ball audacity.

India

• DNA: Timing and chase acumen. They don’t always brute-force; they find seams in fields.
• Landmarks: Kohli’s 52-ball sprint in a chase underlines what “fast” looks like when you keep orthodox technique intact.

West Indies

• DNA: Flair with hands leading. When the groove clicks, wrists do the heavy lifting.
• Landmarks: Lara’s 45 remains a connoisseur’s delight—fast without looking hurried.

Ireland

• DNA: The chase miracle.
• Landmarks: Kevin O’Brien’s 50-ball century against England in Bengaluru is the bedrock of Ireland’s white-ball lore. It was audacious and clinical in equal measure—the rare combination needed to turn a chase from hopeless to historic.

Tactical Blueprints Teams Use When They Want A Rapid Hundred

• Batting order flexibility: Floaters exist for days when the ball is coming on. The “designated accelerator” can shift up a spot if the platform is set or if matchups demand a particular hand (left or right).
• Over targeting: Teams now earmark overs for assault—sixth bowler’s second, a spinner’s first over, or a seamer whose lengths have drifted. The set batter hits those overs hard to tilt the game.
• Matchups by field: If the deep midwicket is two meters squarer than usual, the hitter aims straighter. The best teams train with cones to simulate exactly those windows.
• Pre-set ramps: Modern accelerators practice the ramp against 140+ km/h as a stock shot. It isn’t a bailout anymore; it’s a strike rotation hack that also manipulates fields for later overs.

How Coaches Train For The Quickest Century In ODI Conditions

• Constraints in nets: No drives unless it’s against specific length. No slogs unless the angle is right. Batters are forced to score with three zones only. It fosters creativity under limit.
• Boundary repetition under fatigue: Range-hitting after cardio—because a real sub-50-ball hundred happens when lungs are burning but the hands must stay silent.
• Eyes and reaction: Short-ball machines at variable angles teach hitters to delay the decision by a fraction. That fraction is the difference between a top edge and a ramp over a leaping keeper.
• Simulation sessions: Coaches simulate a 17-run over needed for momentum. Spinners come on with fields pre-set. Batters must find the gap twice and clear the rope once. Repeat until it feels routine.

The Psychological Layer: Why The Best Look Relaxed

• Pre-commitment without rigidity: The greats commit to a plan early in the over but ditch it instantly if the ball asks for something else. Maxwell and de Villiers are masters at this duality: prepared and loose at the same time.
• Controlled heart rate: Breathing work isn’t fashionable; it’s functional. Ragged breath leads to tense grips and late swings. Watch Kohli in a chase—he looks unhurried even when scoring at 12s.
• Memory wiping: A chunked six shouldn’t inflate the next shot’s ambition. The quickest hundreds tend to include more dot-to-one resets than viewers remember. The hitter returns to base after every big shot.

Frequently Overlooked Variables in Lightning Hundreds

• Wind: A subtle tailwind turns borderline hits into fence-kissers. Field changes lag a delivery behind; top hitters punish that delay.
• Dew: Night games can turn bowling into a soap opera—everything slips. A good hitter smells it and unloads.
• Boundary angles: Not all 70-meter boundaries are equal. Square at Queenstown plays shorter than straight at some venues. The best read angles, not just distances.

Pace, Spin, And The Art Of Variety

• Against pace: The fastest ODI centuries usually come with a fair amount of pace on offer. Hitters love bowlers who try to bang the deck or drag length back. The ball arrives. The bat simply needs to meet it with a clean arc.
• Against spin: If the deck is true, modern batters back their reach. The slog sweep is more precise than it looks—hip swivel, head still, and a long, low follow-through to keep the hit flat. Mystery spin is a different equation; the quickest hundreds against high-quality spin usually feature carrom-ball reads off the hand and dead-straight lofts that reduce the risk of edge and turn.

Where The “Fastest Fifty” And “Fastest 150/Double” Fit In

• Fastest fifty in ODI play is the launchpad to everything in this discussion. Many quick hundreds trace back to a 17–20 ball fifty. If a batter reaches that checkpoint, fielders scatter and bowlers rarely get their lengths back quickly.
• Fastest 150 in ODI history is a cousin record that often features the same protagonists. Hitters who can push from 100 to 150 in 15–20 balls control their day entirely; bowling captains surrender their plans.
• Double centuries in ODIs are a different beast. They involve tempo shifts—sprint, stabilize, sprint again. When a batter gets a sub-50-ball hundred on route to a double, it’s because the day has turned into a compatibility test between surface and skill.

Tactical Case Studies: Inside The Iconic Knocks

AB de Villiers, 31 balls, Johannesburg

Setup: Openers laid a neat canvas. AB walked in with permission to detonate.
Method: Early ventures behind square forced third man to move. That opened extra-cover and long-off. With those gates open, the pick-up pull arrived for anything on hip height. No slogging at yorker length; he kept them out. Every big hit was on the right ball.

Corey Anderson, 36 balls, Queenstown

Conditions: Compact ground, thin air, pitch with bounce but not sting.
Method: Leverage and clean striking. He didn’t overhit; he used his size to keep the blade traveling through the line. Horizontal-bat hits carried low and long.

Shahid Afridi, 37 balls, Nairobi

Origin myth: Youthful, fearless, and free. The arc was wide, the bat high, the feet decisive. What made it special was the flow—every swing led into the next shot’s setup. Boundary riders could not stay relevant.

Glenn Maxwell, 40 balls, Delhi

Modernity personified: Reverse sweep first over to tell the bowler the off-side wasn’t safe. Straight hits to make long-on and long-off nervous. Then unleashing leg-side power once the ball got fractionally fuller. A clinic in how to make a field look too small.

Jos Buttler, 46 balls, Nottingham

Range plus control: A seam presentation change from the bowler became a green light. Buttler punishes poor width like few others. The cut and carve zones felt twice as big as usual that day.

Virat Kohli, 52 balls, Jaipur

The chasing master: Barely a slog in sight. He let the ball come, rode bounce, and split the off-side field as if plotting on a graphics tablet. It was a sprint without visible strain.

World Cup Lens: Pressure-Tolerant Speed

It’s worth repeating: scoring an ultra-fast hundred in a World Cup is qualitatively different. Every team stacks matchups; every batter knows he’s being reverse-engineered by analysts. That is why Maxwell’s 40-ball worldwide standard and Markram’s sub-50 sit in a special bracket—the speed survived the structure.

While Chasing: The Quiet Brutality

Chase pressure kills rhythms. The fastest ODI century while chasing conversation begins with Afridi’s 45-ball charge and keeps Kevin O’Brien’s miracle within arm’s length. The difference in these knocks isn’t just strike rate—it’s game awareness. Singles matter more. Risk gets dialed to just below rash. The result looks inevitable only in hindsight.

As Captain: Clarity Begets Carnage

Leadership can cloud decisions. Not on the days it clicks. AB de Villiers wore captaincy like a clarity amplifier—he knew the total needed, how many overs would be bowled by whom, and which lines he could distort early to open up the death overs. Fastest ODI centuries by captains tend to be surgical. They aren’t just aggressive; they’re carefully aimed at everything the bowling team wants to protect.

By Batting Position: The Middle-Order Advantage

The deepest cluster of the quickest centuries sits at No. 4–6, for obvious reasons:

• The ball arrives crisply.
• Fielders are stationed where hitters can predict them.
• There’s license: either to push par beyond recovery or overhaul a chase early.

Openers who break the barrier do so with a special trick: they counter new-ball movement without compromising swings. Ryder and Jayasuriya were rare birds—hands fast enough to access midwicket even off a ball aimed at off stump.

Ground Realities: Not All 100s Happen In Belterville

• Spin-friendly tracks can also host quick hundreds if the batter reads length early, trusts the sweep, and aims flat and straight. The six-over cover comes late; the top-edge risk reduces with a long, low follow-through.
• Big grounds with quick outfields can still feed a sprint if the hitter is happy with fours. Sub-50 is possible without living on the rope—if drives split the ring at will.

A Simple Table For Snapshot Lovers

Fastest ODI Centuries: Snapshot List

• AB de Villiers — 31 balls — West Indies — Johannesburg
• Corey Anderson — 36 balls — West Indies — Queenstown
• Shahid Afridi — 37 balls — Sri Lanka — Nairobi
• Glenn Maxwell — 40 balls — Netherlands — Delhi
• Mark Boucher — 44 balls — Zimbabwe — Potchefstroom
• Brian Lara — 45 balls — Bangladesh — Dhaka
• Shahid Afridi — 45 balls — India — Kanpur
• Jesse Ryder — 46 balls — West Indies — Queenstown
• Jos Buttler — 46 balls — Pakistan — Nottingham
• Sanath Jayasuriya — 48 balls — Pakistan — Singapore
• Aiden Markram — 49 balls — Sri Lanka — Delhi
• Kevin O’Brien — 50 balls — England — Bengaluru
• Virat Kohli — 52 balls — Australia — Jaipur

If there’s a common denominator across these entries, it’s not slogging—it’s control, even at violent speeds.

What This Means For Teams Planning The Next Record Charge

• Selection clarity: Your XI needs at least one designated accelerator who can play that 12–18 ball block with ruthless intent. It’s a role, not a whim.
• Practice for chaos: Range-hitting under fatigue, reaction drills with variable pace, and field awareness sessions are not extras—they’re core training blocks.
• Data with feel: Matchups help, but hitters need their own feel-based triggers—one for the scoop, one for the pick-up, one for the carve. The quickest hundreds marry both worlds.
• Bowling counterplans: If you’re on the other end, you need death practice that looks like a live-speed video game. Yorkers must be repeatable. Bouncers must be aimed at the ear. Fielders must be ready for the scoop; the fine-leg can’t fall asleep.

FAQ: Quick Answers To Big Searches

• Who has the fastest century in ODI?
  

  AB de Villiers holds the record with a 31-ball hundred against West Indies at Johannesburg.

• How many balls was the fastest ODI century?
  

  31 balls.

• Who has the fastest century in ODI World Cup?
  

  Glenn Maxwell struck the fastest World Cup hundred in 40 balls, against Netherlands in Delhi.

• Who has the fastest ODI century for India?
  

  Virat Kohli’s 52-ball century at Jaipur against Australia is India’s fastest.

• Who hit the fastest century while chasing in ODI?
  

  Shahid Afridi’s 45-ball hundred at Kanpur stands as the benchmark in a chase, with Kevin O’Brien’s 50-ball miracle another iconic example.

• Which venues are known for the quickest ODI hundreds?
  

  Johannesburg, Queenstown, Delhi, and Nairobi have all hosted lightning-quick hundreds thanks to carry, ground dimensions, and pitch pace.