Stats: AB de Villiers becomes the fastest to 9000 ODI runs
During the third ODI against New Zealand, AB de Villiers crossed the 9,000 ODI run mark and in doing so the South African ODI captain broke an all-time ODI record that was previously held by India's Sourav Ganguly and had stood for over 13 years. The 33-year-old now holds the record for being the fastest to 9,000 ODI runs.
The 33-year-old was playing in his 214th ODI and batting in his 205th innings when he crossed the mark which is 23 innings faster than Ganguly, who held the previous record. Not only does he now hold the world record for being the fastest to 9000 ODI runs but he also became only the 18th player in ODI history to get to the milestone.
The previous world record holder was Ganguly, who scored his 9000th run in his 228th innings, against Australia at Melbourne in 2004. Since then 11 more players have got to the 9,000 ODI run mark, but no one had even come close to breaking the record before de Villiers.
Before de Villiers, the latest to the 9,000 ODI run mark was MS Dhoni, who also got to the milestone against New Zealand, during the ODI series in October 2016, but the wicketkeeper-batsman took 244 innings to get to the mark and doesn’t even feature in the top five fastest to the milestone.
While AB is the fastest to get to 9,000 runs, in terms of matches or innings taken, he isn’t the quickest to have got there in terms of time taken from ODI debut. That record still belongs to Rahul Dravid who got there 9 years and 322 days from his debut and still remains the only player to have to got to the make inside a decade from their ODI debut.
Unsurprisingly, considering the number of Indian batsmen who have crossed the 9,000 run mark in ODIs, India dominate the top ten with four players on the list. Aside from Ganguly, who is now in second place, Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Dravid all feature in the top ten.
de Villiers is only the second South African batsman to cross the 9,000 ODI run mark and as the world record holder, he got there a lot faster than Jacques Kallis, who previously held the national record, having taken 242 innings to get to the milestone.
Although AB is 33, he looks unlikely to retire anytime soon and with a career ODI average in excess of 50 and quite a few ODIs in the bank, including the Champions Trophy later this year, don’t be surprised if he becomes only the 12th batsman to score 10,000 ODI runs.
Here is the list of batsmen who were quickest to the 9000 ODI runs mark.
| No. | Bowler | Opposition | Matches | Innings |
| 1. | AB de Villiers (SA) | New Zealand | 214* | 205* |
| 2. | Sourav Ganguly (IND) | Australia | 236 | 228 |
| 3. | Sachin Tendulkar (IND) | South Africa | 242 | 235 |
| 4. | Brian Lara (WI) | Australia | 246 | 239 |
| 5. | Ricky Ponting (AUS) | South Africa | 248 | 242 |
| 6. | Jacques Kallis (SA) | England | 256 | 242 |
| 7. | MS Dhoni (IND) | New Zealand | 281 | 244 |
| 8. | Mohammad Yousuf (PAK) | Bangladesh | 258 | 245 |
| 9. | Rahul Dravid (IND) | Pakistan | 280 | 259 |
| 10. | Adam Gilchrist (AUS) | Sri Lanka | 268 | 261 |
| 10. | Chris Gayle (WI) | Zimbabwe | 266 | 261 |
Note: * indicated updated as of third ODI between New Zealand and South Africa.