South Africa broke many a record while amassing 428-5 in the 2023 World Cup match against Sri Lanka at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.

Asked to bat first, South Africa lost Temba Bavuma within the first 10 balls of their innings before Quinton de Kock (100 in 84 balls) and Rassie van der Dussen (108 in 110) registered their respective maiden World Cup centuries.

They also added 204 for the second wicket, a record stand for South Africa against Sri Lanka for any wicket in ODIs. The partnership eclipsed the 187 for the first wicket between de Kock and Hashim Amla at Chester-le-Street in 2019.

No.4 Aiden Markram then smashed the fastest ever World Cup hundred, off only 49 balls, beating Kevin O’Brien’s previous record by one ball. Markram’s 106 took him 54 balls.

This was the first instance of three batters scoring hundreds in the same World Cup innings and fourth in all ODIs. South Africa have done it twice before, against the West Indies in 2014/15 (Amla 153 not out, Rilee Rossouw 128, AB de Villiers 149) and against India in 2015/16 (de Kock 109, du Plessis 133 retired hurt, de Villiers 119), while England achieved it against the Netherlands in 2022 (Phil Salt 122, Dawid Malan 125, Jos Buttler 162 not out).

South Africa finished with 428-5, the highest score in World Cup history. They improved on Australia’s 417-6 against Afghanistan in the 2015 edition. South Africa’s own World Cup best used to be 411-4 against Ireland in 2015, while Australia’s 376-9 in the same edition was the previous best against Sri Lanka.

This was also the record score in South Africa-Sri Lanka ODIs. Sri Lanka’s best against South Africa stands at 327 at Cape Town in 2016/17.

This was a highest ODI score at the Arun Jaitley Stadium as well, eclipsing the West Indies’ 330-8 against the Netherlands in the 2011 World Cup.

South Africa’s 45 fours are also a new World Cup record. Markram hit 14 of these, van der Dussen 13, de Kock 12, David Miller three, Bavuma two, and Heinrich Klaasen one. The previous record belonged to Sri Lanka, who hit 43 fours against Kenya at Kandy in 1996. The ODI record is 56 (Sri Lanka against the Netherlands, Amstelveen 2006).

Kasun Rajitha (10-1-90-1), Dilshan Madushanka (10-0-86-2), Matheesha Pathirana (10-0-95-1), and Dunith Wellalage (10-0-81-1) set only the second instance of four bowlers conceding over 80 in the same ODI innings. Logan van Beek, Shane Snater, Pieter Seelaar, and Phillippe Boissevain of the Netherlands were the first to ‘achieve’ this, against England at Amstelveen in 2022.

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