Pakistan opener Shahid Afridi was at his attacking best as he took just 45 balls to reach his hundred in the fifth match of the six-match one-day international series in Kanpur on Friday. This is now the fastest hundred against India and the second joint fastest hundred in all one-day internationals.
West Indies batting ace Brian Lara had also scored a 45-ball century, against Bangladesh at Dhaka in 1999-00. The record for the fastest century also belongs to Afridi, when he had notched up a 37-ball hundred against Sri Lanka at Nairobi in 1996-97.
However the most significant aspect of Afridi's innings was the number of boundaries hit by him. During his stay at the wicket, Afridi hit 10 boundaries and nine sixes, which means 94 runs came in boundaries out of his innings of 102 -- which amounts to an incredible 92.15 percent of runs in boundaries.
A thorough research into the details of all the 756 hundreds scored so far in one-day internationals reveals the fact that Afridi's performance is the best-ever in ODIs in terms of the percentage of runs scored in boundaries.
Afridi also held the previous record, when he had made 88.24% of his runs in boundaries during his record breaking 102 against Sri Lanka at Nairobi in 1996-97.
Highest percentage of runs in boundaries in an innings [Min 100 runs]:
| % | Runs | Out Of | 4s | 6s | Batsman | Against | Venue | Season |
| 92.15 | 94 | 102 | 10 | 9 | Shahid Afridi | Ind | Kanpur | 2004/05 |
| 88.24 | 90 | 102 | 6 | 11 | Shahid Afridi | SL | Nairobi | 1996/97 |
| 82.09 | 110 | 134 | 11 | 11 | ST Jayasuriya | Pak | Singapore | 1995/96 |
| 82.05 | 96 | 117 | 18 | 4 | BC Lara | B'desh | Dhaka | 1999/00 |
| 82.00 | 82 | 100 | 19 | 1 | V Sehwag | NZ | Colombo SSC | 2001 |
| 78.43 | 80 | 102* | 20 | 0 | RS Kaluwitharana | Eng | Colombo SSC | 2000/01 |
| 75.44 | 86 | 114* | 17 | 3 | Ijaz Ahmed | SA | Durban | 1994/95 |
More from rediff