Highest ICC World Cup Partnerships: ODI and T20

Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels hold the men’s ODI Cricket World Cup record with a 372-run partnership for West Indies against Zimbabwe in 2015. The men’s T20 World Cup record is 176, set by Pakistan’s Sahibzada Farhan and Fakhar Zaman against Sri Lanka in 2026. The two formats are ranked separately below because a 50-over innings and a 20-over innings create very different opportunities.

How we compiled the World Cup partnership rankings

The ODI table uses official men’s Cricket World Cup partnerships and ranks stands by runs, with not-out status preserved. The T20 table applies the same rule to the men’s T20 World Cup. We keep the formats separate because a 20-over innings and a 50-over innings do not offer the same scoring opportunity.

Qualifiers, women’s tournaments, bilateral matches and other ICC events are excluded. Tied totals retain their shared record value, while the match date provides a stable display order. The record is current through the completed 2026 men’s T20 World Cup and the 2023 men’s ODI World Cup.

Current World Cup record cutoff for 2026

The T20 table includes the completed 2026 tournament. The ODI table remains current through the 2023 edition because the next men’s ODI World Cup has not yet been played. We will recheck the relevant table after each completed tournament rather than mixing live or unfinished matches into a historical ranking.

The ten biggest partnerships in ODI World Cup history

The ranking covers completed men’s ODI World Cups from 1975 through 2023. Partnerships are ordered by runs, regardless of wicket. An asterisk means the stand was unbroken. If two stands were tied, the earlier one would rank first, although no tie affects this top ten.

Rank	Batters	Runs	Wicket	Team vs opponent	Year
1	Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels	372	2nd	West Indies vs Zimbabwe	2015
2	Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid	318	2nd	India vs Sri Lanka	1999
3	Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga	282	1st	Sri Lanka vs Zimbabwe	2011
4	Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra	273*	2nd	New Zealand vs England	2023
5	David Warner and Steve Smith	260	2nd	Australia vs Afghanistan	2015
6	David Warner and Mitchell Marsh	259	1st	Australia vs Pakistan	2023
7	David Miller and JP Duminy	256*	5th	South Africa vs Zimbabwe	2015
8	Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis	247	2nd	South Africa vs Ireland	2015
9	Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid	237*	3rd	India vs Kenya	1999
10	Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn	234*	3rd	Australia vs India	2003

The 2015 tournament produced four of the ten stands. The list also shows why a partnership record is not merely a two-player batting list: the wicket, match situation and innings outcome change what each total meant.

1. Gayle and Samuels: 372 against Zimbabwe

Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels set the record in Canberra on 24 February 2015. They came together at 0 for 1, then added 372 for the second wicket as West Indies reached 372 for 2.

Gayle made 215, the first double-century in men’s World Cup history, while Samuels finished unbeaten on 133. Their stand remains the tournament’s only partnership above 350.

2. Ganguly and Dravid: 318 against Sri Lanka

Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid added 318 for India’s second wicket at Taunton in 1999. Ganguly scored 183 and Dravid 145 in a total of 373 for 6.

The partnership lasted as the World Cup record for almost 16 years. India won by 157 runs, so its place near the top is supported by the match result as well as the volume of runs.

3. Dilshan and Tharanga: 282 against Zimbabwe

Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga put on 282 for Sri Lanka’s first wicket at Pallekele in 2011. It remains the highest opening partnership in men’s ODI World Cup history.

Both openers made centuries: Dilshan 144 and Tharanga 133. Sri Lanka scored 327 for 6 and won by 139 runs after Zimbabwe’s own openers had replied with a century stand.

4. Conway and Ravindra: 273 not out against England

Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra added an unbeaten 273 in the opening match of the 2023 World Cup. Chasing England’s 282 in Ahmedabad, New Zealand lost Will Young for a duck before the pair finished the chase in 36.2 overs.

Conway made 152 not out and Ravindra 123 not out. It is the largest successful-chase partnership in this top ten and the only entry where both batters were making their World Cup debuts.

5. Warner and Smith: 260 against Afghanistan

David Warner and Steve Smith shared 260 for Australia’s second wicket in Perth in 2015. Warner made 178 and Smith 95 as Australia compiled 417 for 6, then the highest men’s World Cup team total.

The partnership was only one run larger than Warner’s later opening stand with Mitchell Marsh. That narrow gap puts Warner on this list twice with different partners and in different tournaments.

6. Warner and Marsh: 259 against Pakistan

David Warner and Mitchell Marsh added 259 for the first wicket in Bengaluru in 2023. Warner scored 163 and Marsh 121 on his 32nd birthday, helping Australia reach 367 for 9.

Pakistan mounted a serious reply but finished 62 runs short. The stand is the second-highest opening partnership in World Cup history, behind Dilshan and Tharanga by 23 runs.

7. Miller and Duminy: 256 not out against Zimbabwe

David Miller and JP Duminy rescued South Africa from 83 for 4 in Hamilton in 2015. Their unbeaten 256 for the fifth wicket carried the total to 339 for 4.

Miller made 138 not out and Duminy 115 not out. No other fifth-wicket World Cup partnership is close to this total, and the stand remains the highest for any wicket below fourth in the tournament.

8. Amla and du Plessis: 247 against Ireland

Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis added 247 for South Africa’s second wicket against Ireland in Canberra in 2015. Amla made 159 and du Plessis 109 as their team reached 411 for 4.

South Africa then dismissed Ireland for 210. The 2015 competition appears repeatedly here because several teams combined aggressive top-order batting with the fielding restrictions and two-new-ball ODI conditions of that period.

9. Tendulkar and Dravid: 237 not out against Kenya

Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid shared an unbeaten 237 for India’s third wicket at Bristol in 1999. Tendulkar made 140 not out after returning to the tournament following his father’s death; Dravid finished on 104 not out.

India scored 329 for 2 and won by 94 runs. Dravid is the only batter besides Warner to appear twice in this top ten.

10. Ponting and Martyn: 234 not out against India

Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn added an unbeaten 234 in the 2003 final at Johannesburg. Ponting made 140 not out from 121 balls, and Martyn contributed 88 not out despite batting with a broken finger.

Australia reached 359 for 2 and won by 125 runs. This remains the highest partnership in a men’s ODI World Cup final, which gives it a separate record beyond tenth place overall.

The ten biggest partnerships in men’s T20 World Cup history

The T20 ranking covers every completed men’s T20 World Cup from 2007 through 2026. It uses the same method as the ODI list: partnership runs determine the order, an asterisk marks an unbroken stand, and the earlier match breaks a tie.

Rank	Batters	Runs	Wicket	Team vs opponent	Year
1	Sahibzada Farhan and Fakhar Zaman	176	1st	Pakistan vs Sri Lanka	2026
2	Tim Seifert and Finn Allen	175*	1st	New Zealand vs United Arab Emirates	2026
3	Alex Hales and Jos Buttler	170*	1st	England vs India	2022
4	Rilee Rossouw and Quinton de Kock	168	2nd	South Africa vs Bangladesh	2022
5	Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara	166	2nd	Sri Lanka vs West Indies	2010
6	Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran	154	1st	Afghanistan vs Uganda	2024
7	Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam	152*	1st	Pakistan vs India	2021
8	Eoin Morgan and Alex Hales	152	3rd	England vs Sri Lanka	2014
9	Dwayne Smith and Chris Gayle	145	1st	West Indies vs South Africa	2007
10	Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan	145	2nd	Sri Lanka vs England	2014

The 2026 tournament changed the top of the table twice. Seifert and Allen first passed England’s 170-run record with an unbeaten 175 against the United Arab Emirates. Later in the competition, Farhan and Fakhar went one run better against Sri Lanka.

1. Farhan and Fakhar: 176 against Sri Lanka

Sahibzada Farhan and Fakhar Zaman added 176 for Pakistan’s first wicket at Pallekele on 28 February 2026. The stand took the men’s T20 World Cup record from Seifert and Allen, who had set their mark only 18 days earlier.

2. Seifert and Allen: 175 not out against the UAE

Tim Seifert and Finn Allen chased 174 without losing a wicket in Chennai. Seifert made 89 from 42 balls and Allen 84 from 50, completing New Zealand’s win with 28 balls unused.

3. Hales and Buttler: 170 not out against India

Alex Hales and Jos Buttler carried England to a ten-wicket semi-final win at Adelaide in 2022. Their unbroken opening stand chased 169 in 16 overs and remained the tournament record until 2026.

4. Rossouw and de Kock: 168 against Bangladesh

Rilee Rossouw and Quinton de Kock rebuilt South Africa’s innings after an early wicket in Sydney in 2022. Rossouw scored 109 and de Kock 63 as South Africa reached 205 for 5.

5. Jayawardene and Sangakkara: 166 against West Indies

Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara added 166 for Sri Lanka’s second wicket at Bridgetown in 2010. Jayawardene finished unbeaten on 98, and Sri Lanka won by 57 runs.

6. Gurbaz and Ibrahim: 154 against Uganda

Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran opened Afghanistan’s 2024 campaign with a 154-run stand against Uganda in Providence. Gurbaz made 76 and Ibrahim 70 in a 125-run victory.

7. Rizwan and Babar: 152 not out against India

Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam chased India’s 151 without losing a wicket in Dubai in 2021. Rizwan finished on 79 and Babar on 68 as Pakistan recorded its first men’s World Cup win over India.

8. Morgan and Hales: 152 against Sri Lanka

England were 0 for 2 when Eoin Morgan joined Alex Hales in Chattogram in 2014. Their 152-run third-wicket stand supported a successful chase of 190, with Hales finishing unbeaten on 116.

9. Smith and Gayle: 145 against South Africa

Dwayne Smith and Chris Gayle put on 145 for West Indies’ first wicket in the tournament’s opening match in 2007. Gayle scored 117, the first century in men’s T20 international cricket, although South Africa won the match.

10. Jayawardene and Dilshan: 145 against England

Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan added 145 for Sri Lanka’s second wicket in Chattogram in 2014. It ranks behind the Smith-Gayle stand under the earlier-match tie-break, and it came in the same match as Morgan and Hales’ 152-run reply.

Highest World Cup partnerships by wicket

The overall top ten is dominated by first-, second- and third-wicket stands because those pairs have more overs available. Looking at each wicket gives later-order records proper context.

Wicket	Record partnership	Runs	Opponent and year
1st	Dilshan and Tharanga	282	Zimbabwe, 2011
2nd	Gayle and Samuels	372	Zimbabwe, 2015
3rd	Tendulkar and Dravid	237*	Kenya, 1999
4th	KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer	208	Netherlands, 2023
5th	Miller and Duminy	256*	Zimbabwe, 2015

The fifth-wicket record is larger than the records for the third and fourth wickets. That is unusual and reflects how completely Miller and Duminy changed South Africa’s innings after the early collapse.

What the records do and do not include

This page covers the men’s 50-over World Cup and men’s T20 World Cup in separate lists. It does not include women’s World Cups, qualifying tournaments, ordinary bilateral ODIs or other T20 internationals. Each competition has its own record table and cutoff.

The ODI list is current through 2023, while the T20 list is current through the completed 2026 tournament. The next men’s ODI World Cup is scheduled for 2027, so every ODI figure should be checked again after that competition. A new ODI entry needs at least 235 runs to enter the current top ten and 373 to take the record.

For the wider tournament story, see the Cricket World Cup winners by year and the separate T20 World Cup winners list. Our guides to what an innings means and how many overs are played in ODI cricket explain the format behind these records.