Cricket: Anderson pays tribute to de Villiers

Corey Anderson. Photo / Getty Images

Corey Anderson has paid tribute to South African AB de Villiers who eclipsed his world record for the fastest one-day international century overnight.

De Villiers achieved his feat against the West Indies in 31 balls at the Wanderers ground in Johannesburg, beating Anderson's mark, also set against the West Indies, on New Year's Day last year, by five balls.

De Villiers finished with 149 off 44 balls, enabling South Africa to post their highest ODI total of 439 for two, four short of Sri Lanka's world record against the Netherlands.

How to score a ton in 31 balls

The West Indies 'only' managed 291 for seven in reply, losing by 148 runs.

Hashim Amla batted through South Africa's innings to finish unbeaten on 153 and Rilee Rossouw made 128, meaning it was the first time three players had scored centuries in an ODI innings. It again highlighted South Africa's ODI prowess with the World Cup 26 days away.

Anderson is at least safe in the knowledge there is room for improvement; de Villiers failed to take advantage of three dot balls and a leg bye in his blitz.

"It'll be a pretty quick highlights package I'd imagine," Anderson noted.

"It's one of those things, records are there to be broken and congratulations to AB, it was obviously a hell of an innings.

"You never go out there to try and take down records. It's one of those things that happens and you get in a situation, like I did in Queenstown.

"You're in the zone and feel like every ball's probably going to the boundary, even when you mis-hit it."

Anderson held hope the record for balls faced might diminish further.

"Never say never... We've got the World Cup coming up, so it could be a good chance for someone else to take it down."

Kyle Mills joined the New Zealand squad this morning after returning from a groin injury. He took one for 31 from 10 overs in Auckland's victory over Northern Districts yesterday. Mills got through training but is expected to rest until the fifth ODI against Sri Lanka on Friday.

Kane Williamson's shoulder also coped with training. A decision will be made tomorrow on whether he returns to the starting XI. Grant Elliott also took a full part in training.