Corey Anderson : Fastest ODI Ton

What a way to begin the new year.

On January 1st 2014, I was just checking out the score of the 3rd ODI between WI vs NZ. due to rain the 50 over game was reduced to 21 overs. there were fears of yet another washout after the washout of 2nd ODI few days back.

when I saw the score, Jessy Rider was batting well with this new guy Corey Anderson. after seeing the score, I just went out. when I came back and checked the score again, I was surprised by the new record created by this new guy Corey Anderson who broke the record that stood for more than 17 years, on New Year's Day in 2014.

Corey Anderson thrashed the West Indies bowlers to score the fastest ODI century, off just 36 balls, breaking the record of 37 set by a 16-year-old Shahid Afridi against Sri Lanka, in Nairobi in 1996.

 He scored staggering 131off 47 balls, including 14 sixes and 6 fours, remained unbeaten to set up New Zealand's crushing victory over West Indies in the third ODI in Queenstown. 

Some of the interesting facts of this match are as follows

• Anderson's century is the fastest in List-A too, equalling Graham Rose's 36-ball century for Somerset in 1990. 

• Jesse Ryder's 46-ball hundred too was one of the fastest in ODI history - seventh in the list of quickest hundreds. This was the first time two batsmen have hit hundreds in under 50 balls in the same ODI.  

• Anderson and Ryder added 191 runs for the fourth wicket at a run-rate of 15.28 - the fourth-highest for a partnership of 100 or more runs in ODIs. Incidentally, three of the top four such partnerships have been hit by New Zealand. 

• New Zealand had scored 275 runs by the end of their 20th over in this match and had comfortably beaten the highest score by a team in T20Is - 260 for 6 by Sri Lanka against Kenya in T20I World Cup in 2007-08. This total was also ahead of the highest score in T20 matches - 263 by Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors in Bangalore last year. The highest New Zealand have scored in a T20I international is 214, against Australia in Christchurch in 2010.

The young New Zealand batsmen  said the record wasn't on his mind. "No, not really, I just thought it was a pretty quick hundred, I didn't realise that it was the fastest," he said.

His innings has already created buzz about Anderson's value at the IPL auction next month. West Indies captain Dwayne Bravo hoped Anderson would be his team-mate in the IPL. "Hope to see him in Chennai Super Kings, the auction is around the corner and hopefully MS [Dhoni] and Flem [coach Stephen Fleming] pick him up, it's going to be a bonus for us, a great knock," Bravo said.

One should not forget Jessy Rider's innings here. this is comeback to international cricket after lot of hurdles. He scored blistering 104 off 46 balls, including 5 sixes and 12 boundries.

Following is the list of top 10 fastest ODI hundreds.

Runs Balls 6s 4s Player Match Venue Year 131* 36 14 6 CJ Anderson New Zealand v West Indies Queenstown 01/01/2014 102 37 11 6 Shahid Afridi Pakistan v Sri Lanka Nairobi 04/10/1996 147* 44 10 8 MV Boucher South Africa v Zimbabwe Potchefstroom 20/09/2006 117 45 4 18 BC Lara West Indies v Bangladesh Dhaka 09/10/1999 102 45 9 10 Shahid Afridi Pakistan v India Kanpur 15/04/2005 104 46 5 12 JD Ryder New Zealand v West Indies Queenstown 01/01/2014 134 48 11 11 ST Jayasuriya Sri Lanka v Pakistan Singapore 02/04/1996 113 50 6 13 KJ O'Brien Ireland v England Bangalore 02/03/2011 100* 52 7 8 V Kohli India v Australia Jaipur 16/10/2013 124 53 4 17 Shahid Afridi Pakistan v Bangladesh Dambulla 21/06/2010
Hope that he will continue to perform well and contribute to his team. All the best Corey.