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Virat Kohli and others with 20 ODI hundreds

Kohli reached his 20th ODI century on October 17, 2014.

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Virat Kohli averages more than 50 in One-Day cricket © IANS
Virat Kohli averages more than 50 in One-Day cricket © IANS

Virat Kohli scored his 20th One-Day International (ODI) century on October 17, 2014 against West Indies at Dharamsala just in his 133rd innings. He became the quickest to reach the milestone, Bharath Seervi compares his mark with others who scored 20 centuries.

Virat Kohli has been is scoring centuries in ODIs with ease. He made his debut on August 18, 2008, scored his maiden century on 24 December, 2009 and quickly he reached his 20th ODI century on October 17, 2014. It took his just 133 innings to get to the milestone of 20 ODI centuries.

The landmark has been reached by only seven other cricketers in the past and all of them got there in much more innings than Kohli. The next quickest batsman to 20 ODI centuries is Sachin Tendulkar who got there in his 197th innings — in other words, a whopping 64 innings more! The table below lists down the number of innings for each ODI century mark of those who scored 20 and more centuries.

Number of innings for each century mark:

Batsman Virat Kohli Sachin Tendulkar Sourav Ganguly Herschelle Gibbs Chris Gayle Saeed Anwar Ricky Ponting Sanath Jayasuriya
1 13 76 30 20 31 11 12 64
2 17 81 50 35 52 19 20 99
3 32 87 55 47 54 33 39 103
4 33 93 66 65 55 38 50 121
5 43 100 72 68 66 39 59 128
6 61 103 86 71 77 40 93 135
7 63 108 98 97 81 64 117 142
8 68 111 115 103 86 75 120 195
9 79 117 119 104 98 106 135 209
10 80 131 123 105 113 111 149 218
11 82 137 126 111 118 112 154 224
12 83 145 130 120 131 120 161 252
13 86 175 138 155 142 134 165 263
14 103 181 143 159 146 137 174 276
15 106 182 144 161 147 143 180 277
16 107 185 151 184 181 176 205 280
17 110 189 170 206 182 177 218 310
18 112 191 174 207 184 207 225 311
19 124 194 197 213 189 208 240 338
20 133 197 214 217 226 243 244 350
1st to 20th 121 122 185 198 196 233 233 287

The last row in the table shows the number of innings from maiden ODI ton to the 20th. It is well-known that Tendulkar, who had started much lower down the order, scored his first century in his 76th ODI innings. His frequency increased heavily after on and he reached his 20th century in 197th innings which is 122 innings after his first ODI century. But Kohli has surpassed him even with that criterion. Kohli scored his first ODI century in his 13th innings and 20th century in 133rd, which means he had taken 121 innings to reach 20 hundreds after he had scored the first (the corresponding number for Tendulkar is 122).

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The others to score 20 ODI centuries — Sourav Ganguly, Saeed Anwar, Ricky Ponting, Sanath Jayasuriya, Herschelle Gibbs, and Chris Gayle — all required significantly more innings to get to the mark. Jayasuriya took the maximum, 350 innings, to get to the milestone.

Career aggregates at the point of 20 ODI centuries:

Kohli has the highest average, highest strike rate, least number of runs, least number of innings and least number of half-centuries at the end of 20 ODI centuries among all the other seven who got to the same milestone. His average of 51.57 easily surpasses those of the others. The next best at that point was Ponting’s 42.74.

Player M I R Ave SR 50s HS
Kohli

141

133

5,879

51.57

89.85

31

183

Ponting

250

244

9,191

42.74

79.34

52

164

Tendulkar

204

197

7,575

42.55

86.15

43

143

Ganguly

222

214

8,408

42.46

74.28

50

183

Gayle

231

226

8,328

39.84

84.56

45

153*

Anwar

246

243

8,784

39.04

80.63

43

194

Gibbs

224

217

7,383

36.73

83.37

33

175

Jayasuriya

359

350

10,758

32.11

88.78

60

189

The 20th ODI century:

Tendulkar was the first to complete 20 ODI centuries. He reached there with 118 not out against Zimbabwe at Sharjah on November 8, 1998. The next to get there was another Indian — Tendulkar’s opening partner Ganguly — in ICC World Cup 2003 against Namibia (Tendulkar scored his 34th hundred in the same match).

In the same World Cup, Anwar reached his 20th ODI century against India at Centurion. Ponting scored his 20th century at the famous match at Johannesburg where Australia scored 434 but could not defend it. Jayasuriya emulated him in the England tour at the Oval the same year.

Gibbs got there in 2008 at Johannesburg against West Indies. Once his issues with the board were sorted out, Gayle reached the milestone in 2012 against New Zealand.

Batsman Runs Against Venue Date Result
Tendulkar 118* Zimbabwe Sharjah November 8, 1998 Won
Ganguly 112* Namibia Pietermaritzburg February 23, 2003 Won
Anwar 101 India Centurion March 1, 2003 Lost
Ponting 164 South Africa Johannesburg March 12, 2006 Lost
Jayasuriya 122 England The Oval June 20, 2006 Won
Gibbs 102 West Indies Johannesburg February 3, 2008 Won
Gayle 125 New Zealand Kingston July 7, 2012 Won
Kohli 127 West Indies Dharamsala October 17, 2014 Won

Number of days from Maiden ODI ton to 20th ODI ton

Though Kohli took the least number of innings from both debut and maiden ton to 20th ton, Tendulkar required the least number of days (1,521) from his maiden ODI ton to the 20th. Kohli needed 1,758. However, Kohli has required the least number of days (2,251) from debut to the milestone.

Batsman ODI debut Maiden ton 20th ton Days from 1stTon  to 20th ton Days from debut to 20th ton
Tendulkar

December 18, 1989

September 9, 1994

November 8, 1998

1,521

3,247

Kohli

August 18, 2008

December 24, 2009

October 17, 2014

1,758

2,251

Ganguly

January 11, 1992

September 6, 1996

February 23, 2003

2,361

4,061

Gibbs

October 3, 1996

January 30, 1999

February 3, 2008

3,291

4,140

Ponting

February 15, 1995

January 9, 1996

March 12, 2006

3,715

4,043

Gayle

September 11, 1999

August 15, 2001

July 7, 2012

3,979

4,683

Jayasuriya

December 26, 1989

December 8, 1994

June 20, 2006

4,212

6,020

Anwar

January 1, 1989

February 17, 1990

March 1, 2003

4,760

5,172

Kohli’s competitor: Hashim Amla

Kohli has scored centuries at a greater pace than almost all ODI legends. However, he is being given good competition from Hashim Amla. At present, Amla has 15 centuries from 92 innings and 4,621 runs at an average of 54.36. Let us compare the number of innings they took to score their ODI centuries.

Batsman Kohli Amla
1 13 9
2 17 24
3 32 27
4 33 29
5 43 30
6 61 34
7 63 41
8 68 43
9 79 52
10 80 57
11 82 64
12 83 81
13 86 83
14 103 84
15 106 86
1 to 15 94 78

If Amla goes in the same form, he will reach 20 ODI centuries in quite less number of innings than Kohli took. It will suffice if he takes 54 or less innings to score those five hundreds.

(Bharath Seervi is a cricket statistician who is obsessed with digging numbers, facts and records related to the game. An active member of Society of Cricket Statisticians of India, he blogs at www.cricketseervistats.blogspot.com. He can be followed on Twitter at www.twitter.com/SeerviBharath and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SeerviCricket)

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