Statistical comparison of the five double centuries in ODIs

Chris Gayle is the latest entrant into the list of ODI double centurions

Chris Gayle scored World Cup’s first double century at Canberra against Zimbabwe on February 24, 2015. The date when exactly five years ago, ODI cricket’s first double century was scored by Sachin Tendulkar against South Africa at Gwalior. Gayle scored 215 off 147 balls including ten fours and 16 sixes and broke many records during the course of his innings.

Gayle’s double century is the fifth double century in ODIs but the first by a non-Indian and first outside India. The first four double centuries were all by Indians in India.

Five double centuries in ODIs

Batsman	Runs	Balls	Fours	Sixes	S/R	Opposition	Venue	Date
Sachin Tendulkar	200*	147	25	3	136.05	South Africa	Gwalior	February 24, 2010
Virender Sehwag	219	149	25	7	149.97	West Indies	Indore	December 8, 2011
Rohit Sharma	209	158	12	16	132.27	Australia	Bangalore	November 2, 2013
Rohit Sharma	264	173	33	9	152.60	Sri Lanka	Kolkata	November 13, 2014
Chris Gayle	215	147	10	16	146.25	Zimbabwe	Canberra	February 24, 2015

On the occasion of the fifth double century of ODIs and the first of World Cups, let us see a comparison between these knocks and see who was better in which aspects.

Split of each 50-run mark

Runs	Sachin (200*)			Sehwag (219)			Rohit (209)			Rohit (264)			Gayle (215)
	Balls	4s	6s	Balls	4s	6s	Balls	4s	6s	Balls	4s	6s	Balls	4s	6s
0 to 50	37	9	0	41	3	4	71	3	1	72	5	0	51	4	2
51 to 100	53	4	0	28	6	1	43	1	5	28	7	1	54	1	3
101 to 150	28	8	1	43	7	0	26	3	3	25	7	2	21	1	5
151 to 200	29	4	2	28	7	1	16	5	6	26	6	2	12	2	5
Till 200	147	25	3	140	23	6	156	12	15	151	25	5	138	8	15

It is clear from the above table that Chris Gayle was the quickest to reach the double century mark. He got it in 138 balls while Sehwag did it in 140 balls, Sachin in 147, Rohit Sharma (264) in 151 balls and in 156 balls in his innings of 209.

The fastest 50-run interval was also Gayle’s. He reached from 151 to 200 runs in just 12 balls. Rohit Sharma did this in 16 balls in his innings of 209.

Team’s overs wise split up

Overs	Sachin (200*)		Sehwag (219)		Rohit (209)		Rohit (264)		Gayle (215)
	Runs	4s/6s	Runs	4s/6s	Runs	4s/6s	Runs	4s/6s	Runs	4s/6s
0.1 to 10	46 (32)	8/0	29 (25)	3/1	25 (36)	3/1	12 (25)	1/0	24 (36)	3/0
10.1 to 20	33 (29)	4/0	49 (33)	4/3	16 (23)	0/0	29 (37)	4/0	33 (31)	2/2
20.1 to 30	31 (35)	3/0	50 (36)	5/1	44 (28)	0/5	52 (33)	6/1	34 (29)	0/3
30.1 to 40	50 (29)	8/1	54 (37)	8/1	28 (36)	2/1	61 (34)	8/2	43 (34)	1/3
40.1 to 50	40 (22)	2/2	37 (18)	5/1	96 (35)	7/9	110 (44)	14/6	81 (27)	4/8
0.1 to 50	200 (147)	25/3	219 (149)	25/7	209 (158)	12/16	264 (173)	33/9	215 (147)	10/16

In all the double centuries, the batsmen had quite slow starts. Tendulkar scored the most runs in the first ten overs among all. He scored 46 runs off 32 compared to 29 by Sehwag, 25 by Rohit in his 209, 12 by Rohit in 264 and 24 by Gayle.

Considering the last ten overs, it was Rohit Sharma all the way. He smashed 96 runs off 35 balls in his innings of 209 with seven fours and nine sixes. In his 265, Rohit Sharma scored 110 off 44 balls with 14 fours and six sixes. Gayle scored 81 off 27 with four fours and eight sixes.

% of runs in boundaries

Batsman	Runs (balls)	4s/6s	Runs from Boundaries	% of runs in boundaries
Sachin Tendulkar	200* (147)	25/3	118	59.00
Virender Sehwag	219 (149)	25/7	142	64.84
Rohit Sharma	209 (158)	12/16	144	68.90
Rohit Sharma	264 (173)	33/9	186	70.45
Chris Gayle	215 (147)	10/16	136	63.26

Tendulkar, in his knock, had scored 59% of runs in boundaries, which is the lowest among all. The highest percentage being Rohit Sharma’s in his 264 off 173. In that innings, 70.45% of Rohit’s runs came from boundaries.

Off side vs On side

Side	Sachin (200*)		Sehwag (219)		Rohit (209)		Rohit (264)		Gayle (215)
	Runs	4s/6s	Runs	4s/6s	Runs	4s/6s	Runs	4s/6s	Runs	4s/6s
Off side	90	12/1	99	12/3	108	9/5	147	22/4	58	2/1
On side	110	13/2	120	13/4	101	3/11	117	11/5	157	8/15

Rohit Sharma, in both his double centuries, scored at least 100 runs on both sides of the wicket while the others did so on only one side of the wicket. Gayle’s one side was the most dominated. He scored 157 out of 215 runs on the on side and only 58 runs on the off side. Out of his 16 sixes, he hit 15 on the on side.

Reaching each 50-run mark

Runs	Sachin (200*)	Sehwag (219)	Rohit (209)	Rohit (264)	Gayle (215)
1st	1.3	0.6	0.1	0.3	0.6
50th	11.4	14.6	23.4	23.1	17.5
100th	27.6	22.4	37.4	31.1	35.1
150th	37.3	35.3	45.3	38.1	42.4
200th	49.3	43.3	49.1	45.3	45.5

Among all the double centuries, Rohit, in his 209, got to his century the latest (in the 38th over) while Sehwag got there the earliest (in the 23rd over). Well, Sehwag got to his century in the 23rd over whereas Rohit Sharma got to his half-centuries in the 24th over in both his double centuries.

Gayle got to his 150 in the 43rd over but reached his 200 in the 46th over. Sehwag reached the 200 mark the earliest – 44th over – while Sachin got to it the latest – 3rd ball of the 50th over.

Except Sachin, all the other four double centuries saw the batsman eventually being dismissed. Rohit was dismissed in the final over in his 209 and off the final ball in his 264. Gayle also lost his wicket off the last delivery of the innings.