Shreyas Iyer slams his maiden World Cup hundred
Star Indian batter Shreyas Iyer has hammered his maiden century in the ICC Cricket World Cup. His latest blitzkrieg came against the Netherlands in the last league game of the 2023 edition in Bengaluru. Notably, this was his third successive 50-plus score at the event. He scored an unbeaten 128 off 94 balls, his highest ODI score. He smoked 10 boundaries and five sixes.
A fiery hand from Iyer
Batting first in Bengaluru, India were well placed at 129/2 when Iyer arrived in the middle. The star batter took some time early on before going for the big shots. He was involved in a 71-run stand with Virat Kohli before the latter departed. Iyer then recorded a double-century stand with fellow centurion KL Rahul (102) as India finished at 410/4.
Here are his ODI numbers
Iyer has raced to 2,222 runs from 56 ODIs at an average of 49.37. While this was his fourth ODI hundred, he also owns 17 fifties. As mentioned, this was his third successive 50-plus score at the event and overall his fourth 50-plus score in the competition. He has now raced to 421 runs at the event, averaging 70.16.
The 3rd-fastest Indian to get 2,000 ODI runs
Earlier in the tournament, Iyer became the third-fastest Indian to accomplish 2,000 runs in ODI cricket. Iyer, who made his ODI debut in 2017, accomplished the feat in 49 innings of 54 ODI matches. Shubman Gill (38 innings) and Shikhar Dhawan (48 innings) have reached the milestone faster among Indians. The former is also the overall fastest to get this feat.
Do you know?
As per Cricbuzz, Iyer became India's first World Cup centurion while batting at number four or lower since Suresh Raina's 110* runs against Zimbabwe in Auckland in the 2015 WC. Iyer was later joined by Rahul on this list.
Here are the partnership records
Iyer and Rahul added 208 runs for the fourth wicket. This is the second-highest WC partnership against Netherlands. The duo is only behind Hashim Amla-AB de Villiers's 221-run partnership in the 2011 event. The duo also recorded India's highest stand for the fourth wicket or lower in World Cups. They went past MS Dhoni-Raina's 196*-run partnership versus Zimbabwe in 2015.
