From 82 to 200: How the ODI Record Score Climbed Before Tendulkar and Clark Broke the Barrier

The first one-day international was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 5 January 1971, and its top score was 82 by England's John Edrich. The first double hundred by a man in the format came on 24 February 2010, when Sachin Tendulkar made 200 not out against South Africa in Gwalior. Between those two dates sits one of cricket's slowest-moving records, and the first ODI double century of all was scored by a woman, Belinda Clark, in December 1997.

This piece follows the record score step by step, then looks at why 200 stayed out of reach for so long.

The early climb, 1971 to 1975

In the format's first few years the record changed hands quickly, because there was so little to beat. Dennis Amiss made the first ODI hundred, 103 against Australia at Old Trafford in 1972. West Indies' Roy Fredericks pushed it to 105 against England at The Oval in 1973, and David Lloyd to 116 not out against Pakistan at Trent Bridge in 1974.

The first big leap came at the first World Cup, in 1975. At Edgbaston, New Zealand’s Glenn Turner made 171 not out against East Africa. It took him 201 balls, a scoring rate of about 85 runs per 100 balls, and it set a mark that lasted eight years.

Kapil Dev and Viv Richards change the tempo

The next two records were not just bigger; they were faster, and both came from a crisis.

On 18 June 1983, in a World Cup group match at the Nevill Ground in Tunbridge Wells, India collapsed to 17 for 5 against Zimbabwe. Their captain Kapil Dev finished on 175 not out from 138 balls, with 16 fours and six sixes. His unbroken ninth-wicket stand of 126 with Syed Kirmani took India to 266 for 8 in their 60 overs. Zimbabwe were bowled out for 235 and India won by 31 runs.

The following year at Old Trafford, Viv Richards made 189 not out against England from 170 balls, and West Indies finished on 272 for 9 and won. Richards’ score stood as the record for 13 years.

An interpretation, not a statistic: these two innings suggest that the record was being driven less by long occupation of the crease than by batters who could accelerate once set. Turner needed 201 balls for 171; Kapil needed 138 for 175.

1997: a record year, twice over

The men's record finally moved again in 1997 in Chennai, where Pakistan's Saeed Anwar made 194 against India from 146 balls, with five sixes.

Later that year the overall record went somewhere nobody had taken it before. On 16 December 1997, at the Women’s World Cup in Mumbai, Australia’s captain Belinda Clark made 229 not out against Denmark. She faced 155 balls and hit 22 fours. Australia reached 412 for 3, and Denmark were bowled out for 49.

Clark’s innings was the first double century in any one-day international, by a man or a woman. It remained the highest individual score in the format until November 2014, which means that for almost 17 years the highest score in ODI cricket belonged to a woman.

Twelve years stuck at 194

In men’s cricket, Anwar’s 194 was matched but not beaten for more than 12 years. On 16 August 2009 at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s Charles Coventry made 194 not out against Bangladesh, with 16 fours and seven sixes. It equalled Anwar’s record, yet Zimbabwe still lost the match. It is a useful reminder that a record score and a winning score are not the same thing.

Gwalior, 24 February 2010

Six months after Coventry, the barrier fell. In the second ODI of a three-match series at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior, Tendulkar finished unbeaten on 200. He faced 147 balls and hit 25 fours and three sixes. India made 401 for 3, South Africa were all out for 248, and India won by 153 runs to take a 2-0 lead in the series.

Tendulkar became the first man to score 200 in a one-day international and took the men’s record from the 194 shared by Anwar and Coventry. At 200, though, he was still short of Clark’s 229, so the overall record stayed with her.

After the barrier

Once 200 had been reached, the men's record moved quickly. Virender Sehwag made 219 against West Indies in Indore on 8 December 2011, from 149 balls. Rohit Sharma then made 264 against Sri Lanka at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on 13 November 2014, finally passing Clark's 229. In women's cricket, New Zealand's Amelia Kerr went past Clark with 232 not out against Ireland in Dublin in June 2018.

Why did 200 take so long?

What follows is analysis rather than settled fact. Three things seem to have mattered.

• Time at the crease was never the main problem. Turner faced 201 balls in 1975. The difficulty was scoring quickly enough while staying in, and every record innings from 1983 onwards came at better than a run a ball.
• A limited number of overs is a tight budget. A batter needed both to last most of the innings and to keep the strike. Tendulkar and Clark were both unbeaten at the end of their side’s innings.
• Opposition mattered. Several record innings came against weaker attacks: Turner against East Africa, Kapil against Zimbabwe, Clark against Denmark. Tendulkar’s came against South Africa, a Test-playing side, which may be one reason his innings is so widely remembered.

Read as interpretation, the record-setters show a broadly rising scoring rate, though not a steady one. Turner made 171 from 201 balls and Kapil 175 from 138, but Richards’ 189 from 170 was slower than Kapil’s innings. Anwar made 194 from 146 and Tendulkar 200 from 147, while Clark made 229 from 155. A fair reading is that the barrier fell when batters combined Turner’s patience with Kapil’s speed, and that Clark was the first to manage it.