Fastest hundred in World Cup: Glenn Maxwell’s 40-ball record for Australia

Glenn Maxwell reached three figures off 40 balls against the Netherlands in Delhi in 2023, the fastest hundred in men’s Cricket World Cup history. The full list, and the fastest by an India batter, below.

The fastest hundred in men’s Cricket World Cup history belongs to Glenn Maxwell, who reached three figures off 40 balls for Australia against the Netherlands in Delhi on 25 October 2023. He finished on 106 from 44 deliveries with nine fours and eight sixes, a strike rate of 240.90, batting at number six.

Most versions of this list still name Aiden Markram, whose 49-ball hundred against Sri Lanka set the record earlier in the same tournament. It lasted 18 days.

Fastest hundred in World Cup history

Balls taken to reach 100 in the men’s Cricket World Cup, from ESPNcricinfo’s record of the tournament, complete to 7 September 2026. Ties are broken by date, oldest first. Every hundred here was made in 2003 or later: no World Cup century before then came up in 70 balls or fewer.

Rank	Balls to 100	Player	Team	Score	Opponent	Date
1	40	Glenn Maxwell	Australia	106 off 44	Netherlands	25 Oct 2023
2	49	Aiden Markram	South Africa	106 off 54	Sri Lanka	7 Oct 2023
3	50	Kevin O’Brien	Ireland	113 off 63	England	2 Mar 2011
4	51	Glenn Maxwell	Australia	102 off 53	Sri Lanka	8 Mar 2015
5	52	AB de Villiers	South Africa	162* off 66	West Indies	27 Feb 2015
6	57	Eoin Morgan	England	148 off 71	Afghanistan	18 Jun 2019
7	59	Travis Head	Australia	109 off 67	New Zealand	28 Oct 2023
8	61	Heinrich Klaasen	South Africa	109 off 67	England	21 Oct 2023
9	62	KL Rahul	India	102 off 64	Netherlands	12 Nov 2023
10	63	Rohit Sharma	India	131 off 84	Afghanistan	11 Oct 2023
10	63	Fakhar Zaman	Pakistan	126* off 81	New Zealand	4 Nov 2023
12	65	Kusal Mendis	Sri Lanka	122 off 77	Pakistan	10 Oct 2023
13	66	Matthew Hayden	Australia	101 off 68	South Africa	24 Mar 2007
14	67	John Davison	Canada	111 off 76	West Indies	23 Feb 2003
14	67	Shreyas Iyer	India	105 off 70	New Zealand	15 Nov 2023
16	70	Paul Stirling	Ireland	101 off 72	Netherlands	18 Mar 2011
16	70	Kumar Sangakkara	Sri Lanka	117* off 86	England	1 Mar 2015

Seventeen hundreds in World Cup history have been reached in 70 balls or fewer, out of 236 hundreds in all. Nine of the 17 were made in the 2023 tournament in India; the other eight are spread across the twelve World Cups before it.

How the record has moved

Cricinfo’s list runs down to 70 balls and no hundred before 2003 appears on it, so the whole modern history of this record sits in the table above. Five batters have held it:

John Davison, 67 balls, Canada v West Indies at Centurion, 23 February 2003. Canada’s opener made 111 from 76 in a game his side lost by seven wickets.
Matthew Hayden, 66 balls, Australia v South Africa at Basseterre, 24 March 2007. One ball faster, four years later.
Kevin O’Brien, 50 balls, Ireland v England at Bengaluru, 2 March 2011. Sixteen balls off the record in one innings, and it stood for twelve years.
Aiden Markram, 49 balls, South Africa v Sri Lanka at Delhi, 7 October 2023. The shortest reign of the five: 18 days.
Glenn Maxwell, 40 balls, Australia v Netherlands at Delhi, 25 October 2023.

Glenn Maxwell vs Netherlands (40 balls)

Maxwell came in at number six with Australia already past 300 and hit 106 from 44 balls, nine fours and eight sixes. Australia finished on 399 for 8, bowled the Netherlands out for 90 in 21 overs and won by 309 runs, the largest margin by runs in men’s World Cup history. The next-biggest is seven runs smaller: India’s 302-run win over Sri Lanka at the Wankhede eight days later.

The oddity is how rare Maxwell’s hundreds are. He has played 136 one-day international innings and made four centuries, and two of them are on this list at first and fourth. The other two came in the same 2023 tournament and against England in 2020. Thirteen days after the Netherlands innings he made 201 not out against Afghanistan at the Wankhede.

Aiden Markram vs Sri Lanka (49 balls)

Markram’s 106 from 54 balls, with 14 fours and three sixes, came in the opening week of the 2023 tournament and was the record for eighteen days. It was also the day South Africa posted 428 for 5, the highest total in men’s World Cup history. Sri Lanka were bowled out for 326 in 44.5 overs and still lost by 102 runs.

Kevin O’Brien vs England (50 balls)

Ireland’s 2011 win over England is still the most famous innings on this list. O’Brien made 113 from 63 balls with 13 fours and six sixes at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, and Ireland chased 328 to win by three wickets with five balls to spare.

One line about that innings has aged and is worth correcting: Ireland’s 329 for 7 is no longer the highest successful chase in World Cup history. Pakistan chased 345 against Sri Lanka at Hyderabad on 10 October 2023 — the same match in which Kusal Mendis reached his hundred in 65 balls, which is why he is on this list too.

The rest of the top six

Glenn Maxwell, 51 balls (2015). His maiden ODI hundred, 102 from 53 against Sri Lanka at the SCG, took Australia to 376 for 9. Sri Lanka were bowled out for 312 and lost by 64 runs.

AB de Villiers, 52 balls (2015). His 162 not out from 66 balls against the West Indies at Sydney is the highest score by anyone on this list. It is not his fastest hundred, either — his 31-ball century against the same opponents in Johannesburg five weeks earlier is still the fastest in all one-day internationals, and no World Cup hundred has come close to it.

Eoin Morgan, 57 balls (2019). Morgan’s 148 against Afghanistan at Old Trafford contained 17 sixes, which remains the most anyone has hit in a one-day international innings. He hit only four fours.

India’s fastest World Cup hundreds

Three India batters are on the list and all three did it in 2023, at home:

KL Rahul, 62 balls — 102 from 64 against the Netherlands at Bengaluru, 12 November 2023. This is the fastest World Cup hundred by an India batter.
Rohit Sharma, 63 balls — 131 from 84 with 16 fours against Afghanistan in Delhi. India chased 273 in 35 overs.
Shreyas Iyer, 67 balls — 105 from 70 against New Zealand at the Wankhede in the semi-final, with eight sixes.

Rahul’s innings came in the same match as India’s 410 for 4, and it is often listed behind Rohit’s because Rohit’s is the more famous innings. On balls to three figures, Rahul is one ahead.

What about the T20 World Cup?

Different tournament, much smaller number. The fastest hundred in a men’s T20 World Cup is Finn Allen’s 33 balls for New Zealand against South Africa at Eden Gardens on 4 March 2026, in the semi-final; he finished 100 not out from those 33 deliveries. That took 14 balls off Chris Gayle’s 47-ball hundred from 2016. The full list is in our page on the fastest century in the T20 World Cup.

Common questions

Who has scored the fastest hundred in World Cup history? Glenn Maxwell of Australia, off 40 balls against the Netherlands in Delhi on 25 October 2023.

Who held the record before him? Aiden Markram, whose 49-ball hundred against Sri Lanka came earlier in the same tournament, on 7 October 2023.

What is the fastest World Cup hundred by an Indian? KL Rahul’s, off 62 balls against the Netherlands at Bengaluru in November 2023. Rohit Sharma’s 63-ball hundred against Afghanistan is next.

How many fast World Cup hundreds are there? Seventeen have been reached in 70 balls or fewer, from 236 hundreds in men’s World Cup history. Nine of the seventeen came in the 2023 tournament alone.

Is the World Cup record also the ODI record? No. AB de Villiers reached 100 off 31 balls against the West Indies in January 2015, nine balls faster than anything managed at a World Cup.

See also our lists of the Cricket World Cup winners and the fastest century in the T20 World Cup.

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Photo credit: Alamy