Factbox of 12 fastest centuries in one-day internationals following Virender Sehwag’s century from 69 balls against New Zealand on Thursday.
37 balls -Shahid Afridi(Pakistan)- 102 v Sri Lanka
45 -Brian Lara(West Indies)- 117 v Bangladesh
48 -Sanath Jayasuriya(Sri Lanka)- 134 v Pakistan
62 -Mohammad Azharuddin(India)- 108 v New Zealand
67 -Basit Ali(Pakistan)- 127+ v West Indies
68 -Ijaz Ahmed(Pakistan)- 139+ v India
69 -Virender Sehwag(India)- 100 v New Zealand
71 -Sachin Tendulkar(India)- 124+ v Zimbabwe
72 -Kapil Dev(India)- 175+ v Zimbabwe
72 -Zaheer Abbas(Pakistan)- 118 v India
72 -Viv Richards(West Indies)- 149 v India
72 -Ricardo Powell(West Indies)- 124 v India
It is worth noting that amongst the 12 fastest centuries four each are by Pakistani and Indians, three by west Indians and one by Sri Lankans. Surprisingly no Australians or South Africans.
I am not surprised at all that Australia and South Africa is not there .. there is a huge difference how these two approach the game .. Pakistan and Indian cricket is based on undisciplined and ‘hit and miss’ cricket.. there is no planning how they score … the same player who scores a century might have a pathetic batting average but in Aus or SA case a player might not score a century through out his career but will end up with an average of 40+ … their Cricket is very methodical where everyone plays his role no one goes ballistic everyone contributes … Players like Beven, Miller, Slater will take a seat when its needed .. everything done in Team spirit … where subcontinent cricket is played on individual level .. Afridi and Akram are good examples .. one is a third class player with an average of less than 30 after 125+ games and one is one of the best players around who insist on getting as many wickets as he can … when was the last did you ever hear Aus or SA players talking about breaking records or achieving individual milestone all they care is snatching a victory.. you will never see 4 AUS or 4 SA in that kind of records
Hey one more thing
These things are hard to explain
For some it seems strange... to swallow
The frontier of our minds
Is the last place we find
But maybe the first place we should go