ICC tournaments come with a different sort of pressure and winning them gives the most satisfaction. Hence, there is always a weight of expectations for the players to perform, and doing well here requires a lot of temperament on the part of the player. The pressure is more so when it comes to the knockouts of an ICC tournament.
The games we are talking about here are the knockout of ICC events such as the World Test Championships.
Only a select few have risen above expectations and performed well in these types of do-or-die contests. They played like true champions in these games and literally owned the biggest stage by scoring a century.
In this article, we will talk about the players with 2 or more centuries in ICC Knockout games.
Most Centuries in ICC Knockout Matches
| Player | Inns | Total 100s | ODI WC | T20 WC | CT | WTC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sourav Ganguly (IND) | 8 | 3 | 1 | – | 2 | – |
| Ricky Ponting (AUS) | 18 | 3 | 2 | – | 1 | – |
| Saeed Anwar (PAK) | 5 | 3 | 1 | – | 2 | – |
| Travis Head (AUS) | 5 | 2 | 1 | – | – | 1 |
| David Miller (SA) | 6 | 2 | 1 | – | 1 | – |
| Mahela Jayawardene (SL) | 18 | 2 | 2 | – | – | – |
| Rohit Sharma (IND) | 23 | 2 | 1 | – | 1 | – |
| Steven Smith (AUS) | 12 | 2 | 1 | – | – | 1 |
| Shane Watson (AUS) | 13 | 2 | – | – | 2 | – |
More “ICC Tournaments” Records
Most Runs as Captain in ICC Tournaments
Most Runs in Knock-Out Matches of ICC Tournaments
Highest Batting Average in ICC Tournaments
Most Fifties in ICC Tournaments
Most Fifties in Knock-Out Matches of ICC Tournaments
Most Centuries in ICC Tournaments
Most Centuries in Knock-Out Matches of ICC Tournaments
Most Wickets in ICC Tournaments
Most Wickets in in Knock-Out Matches of ICC Tournaments
Most Man of the Match Awards in ICC
Most Wins by Players in ICC Tournaments
Key Stats
32 batters have scored a century in an ICC tournament knockout match. While 8 of them scored more than 1 century in an ICC Knockout, Sourav Ganguly, Ricky Ponting, and Saeed Anwar all have hit three centuries.
7 batters have scored a century in an ICC World Cup final and Clive Lloyd, Sir Viv Richards, Aravinda de Silva, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Mahela Jayawardene, and Travis Head are those players. Among them, only Jayawardene’s 103* in the 2011 WC final came in a losing cause against India.
Likewise, 5 batters have smashed a century in the ICC ChampionsTrophy final game. Paul Wallace of the West Indies was the first one to do so, Sourav Ganguly, Chris Cairns, Marcus Trescothick, Shane Watson, and Fakhar Zaman followed suit in the subsequent editions. Wallace, Ganguly, and Trescothick all scored the Champions Trophy ton in a losing cause. Find here the cricketers with the most runs in overall Champions Trophy tournament here.
Travis Head and Steven Smith are the only batters to have scored a century in the final of the ICC Word Test Championship. Head is the only batter to have scored in finals of both the ICC World Cup and WTC, both of which coming against India.
No batsman has scored a century in the knock-out matches of T20 World Cup yet. However, you can find the century scorers in the entire tournament here.
Virat Kohli with 931 runs is the leading run-getter in ICC knockout games but he has only one century in such games.
