World Cup

Top 10: Highest Opening Partnerships in ODI World Cup

Providing a strong start to build a huge total for a team is crucial in 50-over cricket. And stitching firm opening stands becomes even more important when the stakes are high in the ODI World Cup.

This makes the job of opening batters more tough, as teams expect them to build a strong foundation. However, some batters took matters into their own hands and provided their teams with brilliant starts.

In the 2011 Cricket World Cup, Sri Lanka’s Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan stormed the record books by building the highest partnership for 1st wicket in the tournament’s history. Both went on to form a solid partnership of 282 runs against Zimbabwe in Pallekele.

Now, let’s take a look at the top 10 highest-opening partnerships in the ODI World Cup. 

Highest Opening Partnerships in ODI World Cup

Players Runs Against Venue Date
Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL) 282 Zimbabwe Pallekele 10 Mar 2011
David Warner, Mitchell Marsh (AUS) 259 Pakistan Bengaluru 20 Oct 2023
Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL) 231* England Colombo (RPS) 26 Mar 2011
Wajahatullah Wasti, Saeed Anwar (PAK) 194 New Zealand Manchester 16 Jun 1999
Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul (IND) 189 Sri Lanka Leeds 6 Jul 2019
Gary Kirsten, Andrew Hudson (SA) 186 Netherlands Rawalpindi 5 Mar 1996
Shane Watson, Brad Haddin (AUS) 183 Canada Bengaluru 16 Mar 2011
Alan Turner, Rick McCosker (AUS) 182 Sri Lanka The Oval 11 Jun 1975
Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul (IND) 180 Bangladesh Birmingham 2 Jul 2019
Paul Stirling, William Porterfield (IRE) 177 Netherlands Eden Gardens 18 Mar 2011

Key Stats

200: The ODI World Cup has seen two 200+ opening stands. Notably, Tharanga and Dilshan are part of both of these partnerships. The first (282) came against Zimbabwe, while the other (231*) came in a match-winning chase as they defeated England by 10 wickets in Colombo.