Limited-overs cricket, since its inception in 1971, has changed the entire flavour of the game of cricket. Earlier, the One Day Internationals (ODIs) constituted 60-overs per side.
It was only after the 1983 World Cup that the game was shortened to 50-over per side, which meant that spectators did not have to wait for the extra 20 overs for the result of the match.
Also, the games became faster and batsmen started to strike the ball towards the boundary more. But over the years, one aspect of the game which has remained constant is the importance of runs.
After all, it is just a game where the side which scores the more runs, wins an ODI match. Let’s have a look at the top run-scoring teams in ODIs:
3. Pakistan
Pakistan tally of 201,641 runs in ODIs is the third highest amongst all nation. Traditionally known for producing an elite list of pace bowlers, Pakistan has given the world of cricket several batting geniuses such as Zaheer Abbas, Javed Miandad, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Mohammad Yousuf.
2. Australia
In any list of records, there is only a slight chance of Australia or an Australian not featuring in it. Australia, with 214,767 runs to their name, have scored the second-highest number of runs in ODI cricket.
The likes of Ricky Ponting, Allan Border, Steve Waugh and Matthew Hayden have contributed the most for this tally.
1. India
Quoting Justin Langer, ‘They (Indian batsmen) are like the Harlem-Globetrotters who play the game so beautifully,’ India over the years has produced an envious number of batting stalwarts who have conquered the list of most runs scored in ODIs.
Besides, India has had the obsession of scoring gigantic totals in recent years. They have scored a whopping 219,702 runs overall in ODI cricket, which is the most by any team.
Most of the runs have come from the bat of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Virat Kohli.
Total runs scored by each team in ODIs:
- India – 219,702 runs
- Australia – 214,767 runs
- Pakistan – 201,641 runs
- Sri Lanka – 186,101 runs
- West Indies – 171,349 runs
- England – 163,279 runs
- New Zealand – 161,896 runs
- South Africa – 142,150 runs
- Zimbabwe – 106,775 runs
- Bangladesh – 75,845 runs
- Ireland – 31,760 runs
- Kenya – 28,496 runs
- Afghanistan – 25,952 runs
