Zimbabwe have been on a roll in the World Cup Qualifier. They defeated Nepal by eight wickets in their first game chasing 291, won with nearly ten overs and six wickets remaining in their chase of 316 against the Netherlands in their second game, and defended 268 against the West Indies in their third.

And if there was ever an ounce of doubt whether they have peaked too early, they quashed it in their fourth game by scoring a record-breaking 408-6 in their 50 overs while batting first against the United States of America.

Before today, Zimbabwe’s highest ODI score was 351-7 against Kenya in 2009, while their highest score at home was 340-2 against Namibia in the 2003 World Cup. They have beaten those scores fair and square in their onslaught against the USA today (June 26).

While it was a team effort with the top five each scoring more than 30, Sean Williams was at the center of it all with a record-smashing 174 off 101 balls.

[breakout id=”0″][/breakout]

Williams has been in top form in the World Cup Qualifier, having scored 102 not out off 70 balls in the first game, 91 off 58 in the second, and 23 off 26 in the third to go with his mammoth score in the fourth.

His innings of 174 today is the third-highest score by a Zimbabwean in ODI cricket, surpassing Craig Wishart’s 172 not out in the 2003 World Cup game against Namibia mentioned above. It is also just the fifth time that a Zimbabwean has crossed 150 in an ODI innings. He hit also 21 fours and five sixes in his knock of 174: the highest number of boundaries hit by a Zimbabwean batter in an ODI innings.

Williams’ knock came at a strike rate of 172.27. This is the highest strike rate for any ODI innings that has lasted 100 balls or more. This goes on to contextualize just how insane this innings was.

Williams was eventually dismissed in the 49th over. While he had a small window of around seven-eight balls, had he not been dismissed, he would have been in with a chance of scoring the fastest-ever double hundred in men’s ODIs and the first by a Zimbabwe batter.

A brilliant career-best ODI tally of 174 from @sean14williams propels 🇿🇼 to it’s highest ODI score, 4⃣0⃣8⃣/6⃣ from 50 overs. 🙌

(Williams 174, Gumbie 78, Raza 48; Paradkar 3/78, Singh 2/97, Kenjige 1/62)

📝: https://t.co/S84siqbni6#ZIMvUSA | #CWC23 pic.twitter.com/zBdxCcWhjc

— Zimbabwe Cricket (@ZimCricketv) June 26, 2023

The knock has taken his tally to 390 runs in this World Cup Qualifier, clearly the highest in the tournament so far. That is not all. These 390 runs have come at a strike rate of 152.94. This is the highest strike rate by a batter with 350-plus runs in an ODI series with no exceptions on the number of participating teams.

While there have been several batters to have scored 390 or more runs in a stretch of four successive ODI innings, no one has managed to do it at a higher strike rate than Williams’.

The majority of the destruction might have come through Williams’ bat, but Sikandar Raza and Ryan Burl didn’t hold back either. Raza scored a 27-ball 48 while Burl scored 46 in just 16 balls. One more hit to the boundary and he would have registered his name in the all-time fastest half-centuries list in ODIs.

In the chase, Zimbabwe were just as ruthless. With USA slipping to 45-6, it looked as if the world record for the biggest men’s ODI win might be broken. India’s 317-run victory over Sri Lanka in January this year sits top of the tree, and remains there after USA recovered to 104 all out, but the 304-run margin was still the second-biggest ever.

Zimbabwe’s qualification to the Super Six is almost certain at this stage. They’ll be hoping that they can keep up this momentum, not just until the end of the World Cup Qualifier, but into the main event later this year as well.