Most ODI Centuries in Winning Cause

Scoring a century is anytime a special moment for Batsmen!

But, it is more special when those centuries contribute to the team’s victory. It’s a different thing altogether.

Most ODI Centuries in Winning Causes

Batter	Team	Total 100s in Wins	100s in 1st Inns	100s in 2nd Inns	High Score in Win
Virat Kohli	India	44	20	24	183
Sachin Tendulkar	India	33	19	14	200*
Rohit Sharma	India	26	12	14	264
Ricky Ponting	Australia	25	17	8	145
Hashim Amla	South Africa	24	20	4	159
Sanath Jayasuriya	Sri Lanka	24	15	9	189
AB de Villiers	South Africa	21	16	5	176
Quinton de Kock	South Africa	19	14	5	178
Tillakaratne Dilshan	Sri Lanka	18	9	9	161*
Sourav Ganguly	India	18	12	6	183
Kumar Sangakkara	Sri Lanka	18	14	8	169

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Key Insights

Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli are currently the only two batsmen to have 30+ ODI centuries coming in winning cause.

Do you know Australia never lost a single ODI match whenever Adam Gilchrist scored a century?

All his 16 ODI centuries resulted in Australia’s wins. That’s brilliant 100%!

Even in Tests, only one out of Gilly’s 17 Test centuries resulted in Australia’s loss.

Among the players who have scored more than 20 centuries in ODI, Hashim Amla leads the chart with 89% of his centuries coming in winning matches for his team – South Africa.

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Highest Percentage of ODI Centuries in winning cause

As I mentioned at the top of this article, it is Adam Gilchrist who scored all his centuries as the match winning hundreds for his team Australia. That’s 100%.

Next in the line comes – Desmond Haynes of West Indies, who had scored 16 out of 17 in the matches, his team won. That’s freaking too – 94%!

And, here is how the top century scorers in the format, ranks in the percentage of Winning Hundreds:

Player	Team	Total 100s	100s in Wins	100s Win%
Hashim Amla	South Africa	27	24	88.89
Quinton de Kock	South Africa	22	19	86.36
Sanath Jayasuriya	Sri Lanka	28	24	85.71
Virat Kohli	India	52	44	84.61
AB de Villiers	South Africa	25	21	84.00
Ricky Ponting	Australia	30	25	83.33
Sourav Ganguly	India	22	18	81.82
Tillakaratne Dilshan	Sri Lanka	22	18	81.82
Saeed Anwar	Pakistan	20	16	80.00
Babar Azam	Pakistan	20	16	80.00
Rohit Sharma	India	33	26	78.79
David Warner	Australia	22	17	77.27
Kumar Sangakkara	Sri Lanka	25	18	72.00
Herschelle Gibbs	South Africa	21	15	71.42
Sachin Tendulkar	India	49	33	67.34
Ross Taylor	New Zealand	21	14	66.67
Chris Gayle	West Indies	25	14	56.00

(Among the Players with 20+ ODI Centuries)

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Why is it not important?

It is also important to understand that these percentages don’t mean that these players failed to play their part.

A batsman’s century alone cannot win a match. There are also other departments in cricket contributing to a team’s victory.

If you look at the chart closely, you can see the players in the top half belongs to the better teams. They have/had better bowling units to add to their century knocks.

Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting had world-class bowlers to compliment their batting superlative. And so do Hasim Amla and AB de Villiers.

Sachin Tendulkar, the master batsman in his days, had to fine-tune with some ordinary bowling units on his side. In fact, a few of his closing centuries in ODI has taken the team forward in many cases, like the one in Sharjah – in 1998, where India lost the match but qualified for the final by NRR, thanks to Sachin’s 143. It was also one of the best and most remembered knocks in the ODI format.

Also, in another of his century Innings against Australia – 175 vs Australia in Hyderabad, 2009, Sachin single-handedly took India to a near-win situation, losing only by 3 runs against Australia’s 350.

Not every time, you can win matches by just scoring hundreds. It would help if you had your team’s support.