IT may go slightly unnoticed in the wake of Australia’s unprecedented batting blitz in Mumbai, but David Warner smashed a 28-year-old Australian record during his breathtaking century yesterday.

On his way to his 18th ODI hundred, Warner became the fourth-fastest man in history to score 5 000 one-day international runs, reaching the mark in just his 115th ODI innings.

That puts him behind only Hashim Amla (101 innings), West Indian legend Sir Vivian Richards and Indian skipper Virat Kohli (both 114 innings) among males in one-day international cricket.

Among Australians, Warner is streets ahead of the pack, reaching the milestone well ahead of Dean Jones, who broke through 5 000 runs in his 128th innings way back in 1992.

Matthew Hayden (133 innings), Michael Bevan (135) and Ricky Ponting (137) are the only other Australians to reach the mark in less than 140 innings.

Warner pushed on and finished unbeaten on 128 last night as he and Aaron Finch (110 n.o.) shared a record-breaking 258-run stand in a crushing 10-wicket win.

Warner has spoken at length in the past about his early struggles in the 50-over format, despite making an instant impact in both Test and T20 cricket at international level.

Up to and including Australia’s 2015 World Cup triumph, the left-hander averaged less than 35 with the bat in 62 matches, scoring just four hundreds in that time.

But since that World Cup final, he has averaged almost 60 in 56 games, adding 13 more hundreds and striking at better than a run a ball.

“I think first and foremost it’s probably been the format I reckon I struggled at early in my career,” he said in 2016.

“The last 18-24 months I’ve really worked hard on trying to construct my innings and build an innings and not play too many big shots early on.

“And just relay that Test match attitude into the one-dayers because you do get a few more balls in your area in one day stuff where you can actually play through that line.”

Underlining his improvement in the past five years, Warner was the equal-56th fastest man to reach 1 000 career runs, equal-42nd fastest to 2 000 and the 20th fastest to 3 000.

But having raced from 3 000 to 4 000 runs in just 12 innings during a golden period in 2016-17, he’s added another 1 000 runs in just 22 innings. (Cricket.com.au)

Fewest innings to 5000 ODI runs

101 – Hashim Amla (South Africa)

114 – Viv Richards (West Indies)

114 – Virat Kohli (India)

115 – David Warner (Australia)

116 – Joe Root (England)

118 – Brian Lara (West Indies)

118 – Shikhar Dhawan (India)

119 – Kane Williamson (New Zealand)