AB de Villiers breaks Sourav Ganguly’s record to reach 9000-run ODI mark
AB de Villiers became the quickest to reach the 9000-run mark in ODIs when he smashed 85 in South Africa's 159-run win over New Zealand in the third game in Wellington to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. Skipper De Villiers achieved it in 205 matches, breaking Sourav Ganguly's mark of 228.
A total of 18 batsmen have aggregated over 9000 ODI runs and de Villiers was also the fastest to it in terms of deliveries (9005 balls), bettering the previous record held by Adam Gilchrist, who achieved it in 9328 deliveries.
De Villiers' average of 53.89 is also the best among those who have scored over 9000 runs. MS Dhoni (50.96) is the only other batsman to average over 50, the other 16 average under 45. De Villiers' average is, in fact, the highest among all 202 players with 2000-plus runs.
De Villiers has hit 189 sixes, with only Chris Gayle (229) and Dhoni (196) having hit more at the end of the innings in which they completed 9000 runs.