Image Credit: twitter.com/@ICC
The goal of every batsman in an ODI is to reach 100 runs. However, every batsman’s biggest fantasy is to score in a World Cup. After all, one of the most prestigious competitions in the world is the ICC World Cup. Many recordings and screenplays have already been written for this tournament. The number of centuries scored by players during the World Cup is one such figure. In light of this, we will now look at the cricketers who have amassed the most hundreds during the World Cup.
| Centuries | Players | Runs | Span |
| 6 | Rohit Sharma | 978 | 2015-2019 |
| 6 | Sachin Tendulkar | 2278 | 1992–2011 |
| 5 | Kumar Sangakkara | 1532 | 2003–2015 |
| 5 | Ricky Ponting | 1743 | 1996–2011 |
| 4 | David Warner | 992 | 2015–2019 |
| 4 | Saurav Ganguly | 1006 | 1999-2007 |
| 4 | AB de Villiers | 1207 | 2007-2015 |
| 4 | Mark Waugh | 1004 | 1992-1999 |
| 4 | Tillakaratne Dilshan | 1112 | 2007-2015 |
| 4 | Mahela Jayawardene | 1100 | 1999-2015 |
- Rohit Sharma – 5 centuries
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Currently, one of the best openers in white-ball cricket is Rohit Sharma. He has been a mainstay of the Indian batting order and has amazing numbers. The Mumbai batsman who participated in the World Cup for the first time in 2015 did quite well. Going into the 2019 World Cup, Rohit was one of the more seasoned members of the team, making his position at the top of the order even more crucial. He scored an unbeaten 122 against South Africa in difficult conditions in Southampton and helped India chase down 228. Rohit made a half-century against Australia, but when India faced Pakistan, its vengeful foe, he went back to scoring 100 points.
The opening batter against Pakistan at Old Trafford in Manchester struck 140 runs in only 113 balls. After a few disappointing outings against the West Indies and Afghanistan, he went on to score three straight tons to end the tournament with five, the most ever in a single World Cup edition.
In the entire tournament, Rohit Sharma only once scored a hundred in a losing effort. Even though Rohit scored 102 runs against England, India was unable to chase down 338. He then scored 104 and 103 points, respectively, against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. He concluded the competition with just one point after the semifinal loss to New Zealand, handing India a humiliating defeat. Rohit Sharma took first place with 648 runs scored at an average of 81.00.
- Kumar Sangakkara – 4 Centuries
Kumar Sangakkara is the only player in ODI cricket history to score four consecutive hundreds in the same innings. And to add to its significance, he did it when the World Cup was going on. In 2015, Sangakkara took part in his final World Cup, which also happened to be his last ODI match. After saying goodbye to T20Is, he would also retire from Test cricket later that year. In the previous three World Cups, the seasoned left-hander totaled 991 runs at an average of 45.05.
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In his first two games of 2015, he scored just 39 and 7 points, respectively. However, once he got going, he was hard to stop. Sangakkara helped Sri Lanka to a resounding victory against Bangladesh by scoring his first century of the year, an unbeaten 105 off just 76 balls. He then scored an unbeaten 117 off 86 balls in an easy 310 run chase against England. Sangakkara’s lone century in a match he lost was in the following game against Australia, where he scored 104 off 107. It was also his slowest century. The master Sri Lankan left-hander who piled on the misery and feasted against Scotland by scoring 124 off 95 balls to make it four in a row set the best hundreds streak in the history of the game in the 50-over format.
Sangakkara’s 45 in the quarterfinal, which gave him the game’s most points, allowed Sri Lanka to be eliminated after being humiliated by South Africa. Sangakkara won the match with a record 541 runs at a remarkable average of 108.20.
- Mark Waugh – 3 centuries
Mark Waugh was one of the best batters to see in his era. Although he had a good record in both Tests and ODIs, his World Cup performance was even better. The youngest Waugh brother scored more than 1000 runs with an average of 52.84 throughout the course of three World Cups. In addition, he scored four hundreds at the World Cup, including three in the 1996 competition.
Waugh made his World Cup debut in 1992, but his performance was erratic. Nevertheless, he was simply magnificent in 1996. He accumulated 484 runs with an average of 80.67 in that competition, including three tons. Two of the three hundreds were noted when the campaign first began. Waugh got off to a strong start in the competition, scoring 130 and 126 against Kenya and India, respectively, earning him Player of the Match honours in both games.
After that, he helped the Australians chase down 287 by scoring an undefeated 76 against Zimbabwe and 110 against New Zealand. Australia came in second place as a result of Waugh’s last World Cup performances, which included a few subpar ones.
- Sourav Ganguly – 3 centuries
Sourav Ganguly’s bat-related achievements are frequently overlooked in favor of his fearless personality, leadership, and the part he played in the early 2000s Indian cricket revolution. He performed admirably in ODIs, averaging 40.73 and accumulating 11363 runs, including 22 hundreds. He earned three tons during the World Cup in 2003 and another four tons during past World Cups.
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