5 fastest half-centuries at the ICC Cricket World Cup

#3 Angelo Mathews (Sri Lanka) - 20 balls vs Scotland, Hobart 2015

One of the lesser talked about innings on this list features Angelo Mathews at his clinical best. The reason we do not hear much about this incredible effort is that it coincided with the Sri Lankan great Kumar Sangakkara’s most significant purple patch as a batsman in ODI cricket. Sangakkara scored 4 consecutive centuries at the 2015 edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup, a record that still stands.

Angelo Mathews has maintained his status as one of the key batsmen of the Sri Lankan team.

In this match, Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first. Lahiru Thirimanne’s early dismissal did not stop the belligerent Lankan lions from stamping their authority. Centuries from Dilshan and Sangakkara took Sri Lanka to 244/4 at the end of the 37th over. Mathews had his task cut out.

Mathews started his innings by smashing Michael Leask for 16 runs on the last three balls of the 38th over. After rotating the strike and allowing his partner Kusal Perera to do the bulk of the damage in the following overs, Mathews shifted gears after his partner’s dismissal.

Matthews brought up his fifty in some fashion, scoring sixes of the second, third, fourth and fifth ball of the bowling of Matt Machan in the 44th over of the innings. He was caught on the last ball of the 44th over, but not before he had given the Sri Lankan innings the much-needed impetus. Sri Lanka managed 363 in their 50 overs and won the match comfortably by 148 runs.