Stats: Most Tons While Batting At No.7 In One-Day Internationals
Nov 16, 2016 at 8:16 PM
With only 300 balls at a team’s disposal, it is quite tough for the batsmen to score centuries in One-Day International and it becomes extremely tough for the batsmen who walk in to bat at number seven to bat. The number seven batsmen are usually the type who score a lot of quickfire thirties and forties to give their teams the last flourish. With only a few balls left, scoring a century for those lower-order batsmen is near to impossible. But there are few batsmen who have accomplished that rare feat.
Nowadays, the teams are looking to add more depth in their batting lineup and as a result, they are playing specialist batsmen at that position. Moreover, the change in the rules of the game has given the lower-order batsmen to go full throttle towards the end and they have consequently proved more effective than their predecessors at number seven and the stats are a clear proof of that. Only one batsman while batting at number seven has scored a century before the turn of the millennium while the rest have come after 2006. Sri Lankan batsman Harshan Tillakaratne became the first batsman to score a century at that position when he scored 100 runs off 106 balls against West Indies in 1995.
In total, only 12 centuries have been scored by number seven batsmen in the history of ODI cricket.
Indian batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni, considered as one of the best finishers of all time, leads the chart with two centuries in 28 innings. He has scored one ODI hundred for India while batting at number seven against Pakistan in Chennai in 2012 while the other one came for Asia XI against Africa XI in 2007 also in Chennai.
The remaining eleven batsmen have scored one century each. Former New Zealand Chris Harris leads the list of highest run-getter by a number seven batsman but he has not scored any century at this position.
Here is the full-list of all the centurions at number seven:
Player | Span | Matches | Runs | HS | 100 | 50 |
MS Dhoni (IND/ Asia) | 2004-2014 | 39 | 812 | 139* | 2 | 5 |
Abdul Razzaq (PAK/Asia) | 1999-2011 | 96 | 2007 | 109* | 1 | 9 |
Jos Buttler (ENG) | 2013-2015 | 34 | 922 | 121 | 1 | 6 |
James Faulkner (AUS) | 2013-2016 | 12 | 178 | 116 | 1 | 2 |
Mohammad Kaif (IND) | 2002-2006 | 38 | 667 | 111* | 1 | 2 |
Justin Kemp (SA) | 2005-2007 | 29 | 579 | 100* | 1 | 3 |
Thomas Odoyo (Kenya) | 1996-2014 | 44 | 776 | 111* | 1 | 2 |
Yusuf Pathan (IND) | 2008-2012 | 34 | 490 | 105 | 1 | 3 |
Shaun Pollock (SA/AFR) | 1996-2008 | 117 | 1633 | 130 | 1 | 7 |
Luke Ronchi (AUS/NZ) | 2008-2016 | 48 | 853 | 170* | 1 | 2 |
Sikandar Raza (ZIM) | 2015-2016 | 5 | 146 | 100* | 1 | 0 |
HP Tillakaratne (SL) | 1986-1998 | 36 | 594 | 100 | 1 | 1 |
*Stats are updated up to 16th November 2016