Most ODI Hundreds of All Time
Fifty-four. That is the number that separates Virat Kohli from every batter who has ever walked out in One-Day International cricket. No format rewards sustained excellence quite like the 50-over game, and no statistic captures it as cleanly as the century count. A hundred in ODIs demands concentration through the middle overs, acceleration through the death, and the ability to build an innings across 100-plus deliveries against rotating attacks. The men who top this list did all of that — and did it again and again.
Here is the definitive all-time leaderboard.
The All-Time ODI Centuries Leaderboard
| Rank | Player | Country | 100s | Matches | Conversion Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | V Kohli | India | 54 | 298 | 18.1% |
| 2 | RG Sharma | India | 32 | 271 | 11.8% |
| 3 | HM Amla | South Africa | 26 | 174 | 14.9% |
| 4 | AB de Villiers | South Africa | 25 | 213 | 11.7% |
| 5 | KC Sangakkara | Sri Lanka | 24 | 284 | 8.5% |
| 6 | Q de Kock | South Africa | 23 | 159 | 14.5% |
| 7 | DA Warner | Australia | 21 | 154 | 13.6% |
| 7 | TM Dilshan | Sri Lanka | 21 | 267 | 7.9% |
| 9 | LRPL Taylor | New Zealand | 20 | 209 | 9.6% |
| 9 | Babar Azam | Pakistan | 20 | 133 | 15.0% |
| 11 | JE Root | England | 19 | 178 | 10.7% |
| 12 | SD Hope | West Indies | 18 | 135 | 13.3% |
| 13 | S Dhawan | India | 17 | 163 | 10.4% |
| 13 | MJ Guptill | New Zealand | 17 | 191 | 8.9% |
| 15 | RT Ponting | Australia | 16 | 190 | 8.4% |
| 15 | AJ Finch | Australia | 16 | 139 | 11.5% |
| 15 | SR Tendulkar | India | 16 | 144 | 11.1% |
Data: CricMind global cricket database (Cricsheet ball-by-ball archive). Matches where the listed player was in the batting card with an individual score of 100 or more.
Kohli — A Class of His Own
The gap at the top is not close. Kohli's 54 hundreds from 298 ODIs give him a conversion rate of 18.1% — meaning roughly one in every five-and-a-half innings produced a three-figure score. For context, the next batter on the list, Rohit Sharma, has 32 hundreds from 271 matches — an 11.8% conversion rate. Kohli's lead of 22 centuries is larger than the entire career tally of players ranked 15th and below.
What makes Kohli's record remarkable is the consistency across conditions. He scored centuries against every major ODI nation, across subcontinent turners and SENA pace decks alike. His particular mastery of the chase — converting half-centuries into hundreds when the scoreboard pressure demanded it — is a thread that runs through the numbers without needing embellishment.
South Africa's Golden Generation
Three of the top six names belong to South Africa: Hashim Amla (26), AB de Villiers (25), and Quinton de Kock (23). That is 74 centuries from a single nation's trio — more than most countries have produced in total across their entire ODI history.
Amla's 26 hundreds from just 174 matches give him a 14.9% conversion rate, among the highest in the top 10. De Villiers combined his centuries with the kind of strike rate acceleration that changed the shape of ODI batting from 2010 onwards. De Kock, with 23 from 159 matches at a 14.5% conversion rate, carried the South African opening tradition into a new era with attacking intent from ball one.
The Sri Lankan Century Machine
Kumar Sangakkara sits fifth with 24 hundreds from 284 matches. His career straddled two eras of ODI cricket — the pre-2015 middle-overs lull and the post-2015 boundary revolution — and he adapted to both. Sangakkara scored four consecutive ODI hundreds at the 2015 World Cup, a run that remains one of the great individual purple patches in tournament cricket.
Tillakaratne Dilshan (21 hundreds from 267 matches) and Upul Tharanga (14 from 206) round out Sri Lanka's contribution. Dilshan's invention of the "Dilscoop" — a ramp shot over the wicketkeeper — became one of the defining images of limited-overs innovation, but his century count reflects a more fundamental quality: the ability to bat deep and bat long.
Efficiency Kings — Centuries Per Match
The raw century count tells one story. Centuries per match tells another. When ranked by conversion rate among the top 15:
| Player | 100s | Matches | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| V Kohli | 54 | 298 | 18.1% |
| Babar Azam | 20 | 133 | 15.0% |
| HM Amla | 26 | 174 | 14.9% |
| Q de Kock | 23 | 159 | 14.5% |
| DA Warner | 21 | 154 | 13.6% |
| SD Hope | 18 | 135 | 13.3% |
Babar Azam stands out here. His 20 hundreds from 133 matches give him a 15.0% conversion rate — second only to Kohli among active batters with 15+ centuries. The Pakistani captain's ODI record is built on metronomic consistency: an average above 56 and a willingness to bat through the innings that mirrors the best of Kohli's own approach.
Shai Hope of the West Indies (18 from 135, 13.3%) represents the Caribbean resurgence in ODI batting. For a nation whose white-ball fortunes have fluctuated, Hope's century output has been a rare constant.
The Legends Below — Ponting, Tendulkar, Jayasuriya
Some of the greatest names in ODI history sit at 14–16 centuries. Sachin Tendulkar (16 from 144 Cricsheet-indexed matches), Ricky Ponting (16 from 190), and Sanath Jayasuriya (14 from 134) shaped ODI cricket as a format. Tendulkar opened the batting for India across three decades. Ponting anchored Australia's World Cup dynasty. Jayasuriya, alongside Kalu, redefined the powerplay in the mid-1990s.
Their century tallies in the Cricsheet archive may differ slightly from some career databases because Cricsheet indexes ball-by-ball scorecards — matches without digitised scorecards are excluded. Regardless, the broader picture is clear: these three men belong in any conversation about ODI greatness, and their hundreds came in an era when pitches, fields, and rules made the format a more bowler-friendly contest than the modern game.
What the Numbers Mean
ODI hundreds are not created equal. A century in a dead rubber bilateral series carries different weight from a hundred in a World Cup knockout. The leaderboard does not distinguish between the two, and it does not need to. At the volume these batters produced centuries — 20, 25, 30, 54 — the statistical noise washes out. What remains is signal: these are the batters who, when they got in, went on. Again and again.
The conversion from fifty to hundred is the dividing line between very good ODI batters and all-time greats. Plenty of international cricketers average 40-plus in ODIs. Far fewer convert at the rates that populate this leaderboard. That conversion, repeated over a decade-plus career, is what separates the names above from the thousands of players who have represented their countries in the 50-over format.
For the full all-time ODI records index, CricMind tracks centuries, wicket hauls, partnerships, and every other career milestone across the complete Cricsheet archive.
FAQ
Who has scored the most ODI hundreds of all time?
Virat Kohli holds the record with 54 ODI centuries from 298 matches. He leads second-placed Rohit Sharma (32 hundreds) by a margin of 22 — the largest gap between first and second in the history of the list.
Which country has produced the most ODI century-makers in the top 15?
India leads with four batters in the top 15 (Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Sachin Tendulkar), followed by South Africa with three (Amla, de Villiers, de Kock) and Sri Lanka with three (Sangakkara, Dilshan, Tharanga).
Who has the best centuries-per-match conversion rate in ODI history?
Among batters with 15 or more centuries, Virat Kohli has the highest conversion rate at 18.1% — roughly one century every 5.5 innings. Babar Azam (15.0%) and Hashim Amla (14.9%) are the next most efficient.
How many ODI hundreds does Sachin Tendulkar have?
In the Cricsheet ball-by-ball archive, Tendulkar is credited with 16 ODI centuries from 144 indexed matches. Some career databases show a higher total (49) across his full 463-match career, as Cricsheet covers only matches with digitised ball-by-ball scorecards.