Midway through his innings against West Indies in the Bristol ODI, Moeen Ali changed gears, and possibly also turbo-charged his engine, to register what is the fastest ODI hundred ever made in England. Moeen's 53-ball hundred is the second-quickest by an England batsman in ODIs. Jos Buttler made a 46-ball century against Pakistan in 2015-16, which is the quickest. Click here for a list of the fastest hundreds in ODIs.
Moeen had made only 39 off his first 39 balls at the end of the 44th over of England's innings, before he launched into Miguel Cummins and Jason Holder in the next-two overs scoring 48 runs in the space of just 10 balls. In limited-over internationals since 2001, only Herschelle Gibbs and Chris Gayle have made as many runs in the space of any ten balls in an innings.
This onslaught by Moeen meant that he reached his hundred in the 48th over in spite of coming into bat only in the 33rd over at the fall of Buttler's wicket. In ODIs since 2001, there are only three instances when batsmen have come to bat later in an ODI innings and yet managed to make a hundred. AB de Villiers walked into bat as late as the 39th over against West Indies in 2015 when he bludgeoned the fastest ODI hundred ever. Buttler had come to the crease in the 36th over of the innings against Pakistan when he made England's fastest ODI hundred.
By the end of his innings he had hit two more sixes off Cummins to take the tally of sixes off the bowler to five. These are the most sixes hit by an England batsman off any bowler in ODIs since 2001. Buttler hit five sixes off Anwar Ali when he got the fastest ODI hundred for England in 2015 and Dimitri Mascarenhas hit five against Yuvraj Singh in an ODI at the Oval in 2007.
Moeen made 44 runs off 18 deliveries from Cummins at a strike rate of 244.44 - the most he made in the match against a bowler. He also tore into Holder hitting him for 27 runs off just eight balls which included three sixes. In total, the eight sixes off Cummins and Holder had come in just the space of 14 balls. Only de Villiers and Corey Anderson have taken fewer balls during the course of an innings to hit eight sixes. While de Villiers took only 11 balls to hit as many sixes in his innings against West Indies in Johannesburg, Anderson took 13 balls to hit eight sixes in his innings against the same opposition when he made what was then the fastest ODI hundred.
Moeen's was the 16th instance of a batsman at No.7 or lower getting a hundred in ODIs. His strike-of 178.94 though is the best among those 16 innings. That strike-rate meant Moeen became the first batsman at No. 7 or lower to get an ODI century coming to bat after the 30th over.