3 international records that are surprisingly held by low-ranked teams' players

Cricket is a relatively closed game, with the ICC having only 12 nations as full members. Though cricket is considered the second most popular sport in the world after football, the ICC has not been eager to spread it too far or wide, as evident by the number of teams that are slated to play the upcoming World Cup 2019.

Teams like Netherlands, Ireland and Zimbabwe will not be seen participating in the marquee tournament starting from May 30 in England and Wales. These teams have featured in World Cup cricket on previous occasions but failed to make it to the prestigious competition this time, as the ICC restricted the mega-tournament to just 10 teams.

But these teams have been causing upsets against the major teams on a regular basis, giving ample testimony of their abilities. In fact, there are a few records in international cricket that are held by players of these low-ranked teams.

Let's have a look at three such major records:

#1 Kevin O Brien: The fastest century in World Cup

Kevin O'Brien celebrates his century against England.

So far the mega tournament has been played 11 times. A lot of cricketing giants have featured in the tournament, but none has scored a century faster than the Irish batsman Kevin O'Brien, who broke the record in the World Cup 2011 when he smashed a 50-ball hundred against England at Bangaluru.

In that match, O'Brien helped Ireland chase down an improbable target of 327 runs, as he scored 113 off 63 balls with 13 fours and 6 sixes. Previously, the record for the fastest century in World Cup was held by the Australian opener Matthew Hayden, who scored a 66-ball hundred against South Africa in the World Cup 2007.

The milestone of the first Test century by an Irish batsman also goes to Kevin O'Brien, who scored a century against Pakistan in the debut Test match for Ireland.

#2 Ryan ten Doeschate: Highest average in ODI cricket

Ryan Ten Doeschate scored two centuries in the World Cup 2011, against Ireland and England.

The highest batting average in ODI cricket at the moment, with a cut-off of 1500 runs, is 67, and the holder of this record is none other than the Dutch batsman Ryan Ten Doeschate. The players following him in this record are Imam-ul-Haq and Virat Kohli, with averages of 60.55 and 59.50 respectively.

Ten Doeschate has scored 1541 runs in 32 innings so far in his career. He has registered five centuries and nine half-centuries, including a century against England and a half-century against South Africa.

Though Ten Doeschate has not played much of international cricket, he is a highly reputed batsman in First class and List A cricket where he primarily represents English county club Essex. He has scored 10,283 runs in first class cricket and 5826 runs in List A cricket. He has also played in the Indian Premier League, for Kolkata Knight Riders.

#3 Rashid Khan: Best bowling average in ODI cricket

Rashid Khan is set to play his first 50-over ICC tournament

Rashid Khan, the Afghan leggie, is a prominent name in the cricketing world. He has made a name for himself with his high-quality leg-spin bowling in many T20 leagues around the world.

Coming to international cricket, Rashid holds the best bowling average in ODI history with a cut-off of 100 wickets. Rashid has taken 118 wickets in 50 innings at 14.47 apiece so far in his ODI career. A strike rate of 22.2 and an economy rate of 3.90 make for simply unbelievable numbers from the Afghan star.

Rashid has performed with equal intensity irrespective of the opposition and conditions. Though he has not got many opportunities to showcase his potential against big teams, he has done his job in the limited chances he has got.

In the Asia Cup 2018, playing against the likes of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Rashid performed exceptionally well to trouble the batting giants from these teams. In the tournament, Rashid picked up 10 wickets from five matches at 17.20 with a strike rate of 27.7 and an economy rate of 3.72.