Kevin OBrien hits fastest World Cup century – Highlights

Sports Encounter Desk March 3, 2011 1

Kevin OBrien hits fastest World Cup century – Highlights

BANGALORE: In a historic match of ICC Cricket World Cup 200, Ireland defeated England by three wickets at P Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday, thanks mainly to a ravishing fastest hundred of world cup by Kevin O’Brien.

Kevin O'Brien. Courtesy: Getty Images

After tottering at 111/5, Kevin launched a strong onslaught on English bowlers hitting them for six sixes and 12 boundaries as Ireland achieved the highly unlikely victory, thus causing the first major upset of the ongoing world cup.

Ireland took Batting Powerplay in the 32^nd over, a great move by all standards, and used it to perfection scoring 62 runs without losing even a single wicket as Kevin O’Brien and AR Cusack turned it on England, who kept dropping crucial catches and missing run outs consistently in the evening.

This is the fastest century by any batsman in the cricket world cups as O’Brien achieved the feat from only 50 balls. The previous record was held by Australian strong opener, Matthew Hayden who snatched the world record against South Africa in 2007 edition of the world cup held in West Indies. Hayden did it from 66 balls but O’Brien took a lot lesser number of deliveries to get there.

In the end, O’Brien was run out after scoring 113 runs from just 63 balls but by then the match was very much under Irish control.

If we take a look at the top five fastest hundreds in the world cups, after Kevin O’Brien and Matthew Hayden, the next batsman is John Davison of Canada who hit 67-ball hundred against West Indies in 2003, Kapil Dev of India achieved the record in 1983 world cup against Zimbabwe when he scored the fastest hundred of that time from 72 balls, and Adam Gilchrist of Australia comes fifth in the list with 72-ball century against Sri Lanka in the 2007 world cup.

For our valued visitors, The Sports Encounter is sharing highlights of the great innings played by Kevin O’Brien against England which would be remembered for a long long time. The highlights are compiled by the ESPNSTAR.