AB de Villiers’ ODI century was scored in just 40 minutes; ‘This’ world record was broken

Former South African captain and batsman AB de Villiers has achieved many great records in his international career. He was also nicknamed ‘Mr 360’ due to his all-round batting ability. The greatest example of his all-round hitting was seen 8 years ago against the West Indies. De Villiers celebrates his 39th birthday on Friday (February 17). On this occasion, let’s know about his fastest century in ODIs…

Eight years ago i.e. on 18th January 2015, the feat of scoring the fastest (fastest or lowest ball) century in the history of ODI cricket was done by AB De Villiers, the then captain of South Africa and former batsman.

He scored 149 runs off 44 balls in 60 minutes in the West Indies vs South Africa match at Johannesburg. He had scored a half century in almost 1 hour, but in this match he faced only 31 balls to complete his century. He broke the record of fastest 36-ball ODI century held by Corey Andersen in 2014.

#OnThisDay In 2015, AB de Villiers smashed the fastest ODI hundred off just 31 balls!

He went on to score a 44-ball 149, which featured nine fours and 16 sixes 🙌 pic.twitter.com/IFBVmRcRzP

— ICC (@ICC) January 18, 2020

Had made a century in just 40 minutes
De Villiers lost the toss in the match. Due to this, West Indies captain Jason Holder decided to bowl first. Batting first, South African openers Hashim Amla and Riley Russo both scored centuries. Russo was dismissed on the third ball of the 39th over and AB de Villiers came into the field.

He left the West Indies bowlers at a loss for the next 59 minutes. De Villiers was back in the tent with 149 runs before Hashim Amla reached 153 runs. He took just 40 minutes to score the fastest century in 31 balls.

On the strength of these three players, South Africa scored 439 runs for 2. Later this match was won by South Africa by as many as 148 runs.

Read More- …and that dream of AB de Villiers remains unfulfilled after all!

Quick century and half century
In this match, de Villiers scored the fastest ODI fifty (16 balls), fastest ODI century (31 balls) and fastest ODI century (40 minutes). De Villiers also broke Sanath Jayasuriya’s record of 17-ball fifty in 1996 while scoring the fastest half-century in the match. He made this half century in just 19 minutes.

In this match, de Villiers had done the feat of hitting 16 sixes. This was also a record by an ODI player at that time. Next this record was broken by ON Morgan (17 sixes).

The feat was done after the third over
De Villiers is the only batsman in the world to score a century after coming into bat after the third over and he did this feat for the second time in this match. Before that he had done this feat against India in 2010. (ab de villiers 31 ball century number cruncher when records went for a toss)

Important news-
…and that dream of AB de Villiers remains unfulfilled after all!
Don’t call me ‘sir’! Jadeja himself made the request