Most runs in ODI World Cup History
Year | Player | Runs | Matches | Innings | HS | Average | 50s | 100s |
1975 | Glenn Turner (NZ) | 333 | 4 | 4 | 171* | 166.50 | 0 | 2 |
1979 | Gordon Greenidge (WI) | 253 | 4 | 4 | 106* | 84.33 | 0 | 1 |
1983 | David Gower (ENG) | 384 | 7 | 7 | 130 | 76.80 | 1 | 1 |
1987 | Graham Gooch (ENG) | 471 | 8 | 8 | 115 | 58.87 | 3 | 1 |
1992 | Martin Crowe (NZ) | 456 | 9 | 9 | 100* | 114 | 4 | 1 |
1996 | Sachin Tendulkar (IND) | 523 | 7 | 7 | 137 | 87.16 | 3 | 2 |
1999 | Rahul Dravid (IND) | 461 | 8 | 8 | 145 | 65.85 | 3 | 2 |
2003 | Sachin Tendulkar (IND) | 673 | 11 | 11 | 152 | 61.18 | 6 | 1 |
2007 | Matthew Hayden | 659 | 11 | 10 | 158 | 73.22 | 1 | 3 |
2011 | Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL) | 500 | 9 | 9 | 144 | 62.50 | 2 | 2 |
2015 | Martin Guptill (NZ) | 547 | 9 | 9 | 237* | 68.37 | 1 | 2 |
2019 | Rohit Sharma (IND) | 648 | 9 | 9 | 140 | 81 | 1 | 5 |
There is no bigger occasion than a 50-over World Cup edition for the batters to showcase their talent and several players have showcased their heroics with memorable performances. Since the advent of the tournament in 1975, numerous players have delivered memorable performances and have risen through the ranks. From modern greats like Rohit Sharma and Martin Guptill to retired legends like Sachin Tendulkar and Martin Crowe, the list includes an elite group of players. Notably, the Most runs in ODI World Cup also gets the golden bat.
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Top 5 batters with Most runs in ODI World Cup History
Team | Player | Matches | Runs | Average | Centuries |
India | Sachin Tendulkar | 45 | 2278 | 56.95 | 6 |
Australia | Ricky Ponting | 46 | 1743 | 45.86 | 5 |
Sri Lanka | Kumar Sangakkara | 37 | 1532 | 56.74 | 5 |
West Indies | Brian Lara | 34 | 1225 | 42.24 | 2 |
South Africa | AB de Villiers | 23 | 1207 | 63.52 | 4 |
The ICC Cricket World Cup is an event played once in every four years and is a benchmark for all the participating players in order to hog the limelight. The batters who finish with Most runs in ODI World Cup is awarded the Golden Bat and that serves a long rope to their individual career.
New Zealand’s Glenn Turner was the first player to win the golden bat award when the tournament was first held in 1975 in England. Turner scored 333 runs in four games at an average of 166.50, adding two centuries. West Indies batter Gordon Greenidge scored the Most runs in ODI World Cup in 1979 World Cup with 253 runs in four innings, which happens to be lowest aggregate among all the World Cup events, though a team could only play four matches at that point.
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England got the achievement of most run-scorer for back-to-back editions with David Gower (1983) and Graham Gooch (1987) displaying great show with the bat respectively. New Zealand captain Martin Crowe had a phenomenal run in the 1992 World Cup jointly-hosted by New Zealand and Australia. Crowe’s 456 runs in nine innings was instrumental for the Blackcaps to qualify in the semi-finals.
Indian batting stalwart Sachin Tendulkar is the only player in the history of the ODI World Cup to end with the golden bat on a couple of occasions.He made 523 and 673 runs in the World Cup editions of 1996 and 2003 respectively. His masterclass performance of 673 runs at 61.18, with the help of six fifties and a solitary century, is the record for Most runs in ODI World Cup History.
Barring Tendulkar, four more players have scored 500 runs in World Cup to win the golden bat. It started with Matthew Hayden (659 runs at 73.22) in 2007 World Cup and later Tillakaratne Dilshan finished with exactly 500 runs in the next season followed by Martin Guptill’s 547-run campaign in 2015. Indian batter Rohit Sharma became the first player to hit five centuries in the 2019 World Cup and came the closest to break Tendulkar’s record.