Fastest Century in ODI Cricket: AB de Villiers' 31-Ball Record

Thirty-one balls. That is how long it took AB de Villiers to go from zero to a century against the West Indies at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on 18 January 2015, and more than a decade later no one else in men’s ODI history has done it in fewer than 36. This guide ranks the ten fastest centuries ever recorded in one-day internationals, with every ball count checked against ESPNcricinfo’s official records and Wisden’s 2025 leaderboard, plus the context behind each one.

The Fastest ODI Century Ever: AB de Villiers, 31 Balls (2015)

De Villiers came to the crease in the third ODI of the series with South Africa already well placed, and simply attacked every ball he faced. His fifty arrived off 16 balls — itself a world record at the time — and his century followed just 15 deliveries later. He finished unbeaten on 149 off 44 balls, with 16 sixes and 9 fours, in an innings that lasted barely seven overs of batting time.

The Wanderers has a fast outfield and thin air that helps the ball carry, but the bowling attack he faced was still full international strength. What separated the innings from every fast century before or since was consistency: de Villiers found the middle of the bat from almost every angle, over after over, rather than surviving a string of near-misses.

Top 10 Fastest ODI Centuries by Balls Faced

Ranked by balls faced to reach 100, men’s full-member and Associate-nation ODIs. Ties are marked ”=”. Two centuries — Cameron Green’s 47-ball hundred for Australia (v South Africa, Mackay, 2025) and Jos Buttler’s earlier 47-ball century (v Netherlands, Amstelveen, 2022) — sit just outside this top 10, tied for 11th.

How This List Is Ranked

This list counts only recognised men’s one-day internationals, ranked by balls faced to reach three figures — the ball on which the century was completed, not the batter’s final strike rate. Domestic List A records, such as Jake Fraser-McGurk’s 29-ball century in Australia’s Marsh One-Day Cup, are excluded because they aren’t full internationals, even though headlines sometimes conflate the two. Women’s ODI cricket runs its own separate leaderboard and isn’t merged into this men’s list. Ties share a rank, marked ”=”, and are ordered by date.

Corey Anderson’s Short-Lived Record

De Villiers was not hunting an open record. New Zealand’s Corey Anderson had set the 36-ball mark against the same West Indies attack a year earlier, on New Year’s Day 2014 in Queenstown, finishing unbeaten on 131 off 47 balls with 14 sixes. His reign lasted barely 13 months, one of the shortest for any major ODI batting record, before de Villiers broke it by five balls.

Shahid Afridi’s 18-Year Record

Afridi’s story runs the opposite way. His 37-ball century against Sri Lanka at Nairobi Gymkhana on 4 October 1996 — struck at age 16 with 11 sixes — stood as the world record for almost 18 years, longer than any other entry on this list has lasted. He also produced a second sub-50-ball century nine years later, a 45-ball hundred against India in Kanpur, meaning he appears twice in the top 10.

The Modern Challengers: Maxwell and Asif Khan

The two fastest centuries since de Villiers both came in 2023. Glenn Maxwell’s 40-ball hundred for Australia against the Netherlands in Delhi is the fastest century in World Cup history and the fourth-fastest ODI century overall, scored en route to an unbeaten 201 while battling cramp. Weeks earlier, UAE’s Asif Khan reached his century in 41 balls against Nepal in Kirtipur, the fastest ODI hundred ever by an Associate-nation player, finishing on 101 not out.

What Makes an Ultra-Fast Century Possible?

A handful of things tend to line up when a record like this falls:

• Batting position and freedom: Most record holders bat at four, five or six, arriving once the mandatory fielding restrictions have eased but with wickets still in hand, which frees them to swing from ball one.
• Match situation: A team already in control, or already needing a rapid chase, removes the pressure to accumulate.
• Ground dimensions and outfield: Smaller grounds and fast outfields, like Queenstown’s Village Green or Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium, turn more mishits into sixes.
• Conditions and bowling depth: Flat, dry pitches against tiring or part-time bowling attacks let the bat find the middle consistently, as it did against Zimbabwe’s and Netherlands’ attacks on this list.
• Six-hitting over running: Every innings on this list is built on sixes rather than quick singles — de Villiers’ 16 sixes moved his score far faster than running ever could.

Fastest ODI Century: Current Status in 2026

AB de Villiers’ 31-ball record has now stood for more than 11 years, longer than Corey Anderson’s mark lasted but still well short of Shahid Afridi’s 18-year reign. No batter has faced fewer than 36 balls to reach an ODI century since de Villiers’ innings, and the two fastest challenges since then — Maxwell’s 40 balls and Asif Khan’s 41 — both remain at least nine balls behind. T20 cricket has pushed international strike rates well past 150 as a baseline, and that mentality keeps producing fast ODI hundreds from batters like Maxwell, Buttler and Cameron Green, whose 47-ball century against South Africa in 2025 shows the record is still being chased. For highest individual ODI scores, a different kind of record entirely, see the companion guide; for the broadest six-hitting tallies, see most sixes in international cricket and the fastest century in cricket across all formats.