Stats: Fastest to 18 centuries in ODI cricket

Ross Taylor brought out his experience to help New Zealand to script a close win in the first ODI against England at the Seddon Park in Hamilton. The 33-year-old was joined by Tom Latham after their side lost three wickets for 27 runs in pursuit of 285. The pair put on a 178-run stand for the 4th wicket in only 30.2 overs as New Zealand were cruising through in the chase. However, a heap of wickets put the home team in a spot of bother as Taylor departed after a 116-ball 113. Mitchell Santner’s quick-fire 45* helped the home side to take a 1-0 lead with four balls to spare.

The century by Taylor in this game is his 18th in the ODI format but only the 5th coming during a run-chase. Nine of his 18 hundreds on the home soil out of which three came at the Seddon Park. His innings came to an end on 113 after he attempted a slog in Adil Rashid’s bowling but ended up getting stumped instead. Taylor hit 12 boundaries without any sixes during his controlled innings which lasted 116 balls.

Taylor, who holds the New Zealand records for most hundreds in ODIs, Tests and International cricket, achieved few more milestones during this game. First, Taylor went past 7000 ODI runs to become the 3rd New Zealand player with this milestone after Stephen Fleming and Nathan Astle. In this process, he became the joint 7th fastest and the quickest among NZ players to complete 7000 ODI runs. Taylor also gone past Brendon McCullum’s International aggregate for New Zealand and now stands behind only Fleming.

Ross Taylor, who featured in 188th innings in the ODI cricket, became the 6th quickest to have scored 18 hundreds in this format. The earliest a player hit their career’s 18th ODI ton was Hashim Amla in his 102nd innings while Virat Kohli in his 119th innings. No player other than Amla and Kohli needed less than 150 innings to hit their 18th ODI ton. A total of seven players including Taylor scored their 18th ODI ton before their 200th innings. Both Saeed Anwar and Herschelle Gibbs scored their 18th ODI ton in their 207th innings.

Quickest to 18 centuries in ODI cricket: (Less than 200 innings)

(Stats as on February 25, 2018)

For more cricket stats, follow CricTracker.com