Had it not been for South Africa's coach Russell Domingo, Corey Anderson's record of the fastest ODI century off 36 balls would have stood today as well.
AB de Villiers, who broke Anderson's record, scored his ton off 31 balls, but was not sure if he was the right person to go in and bat after Rilee Rossouw and Hashim Amla gave the Proteas a terrific start against the West Indies.
He suggested David Miller's name to bat after the first wicket, but Domingo was adamant about his decision to send de Villiers ahead of Miller, who is also an equally destructive player.
"I approached Russell Domingo about four or five times saying, 'Are you sure me and not David Miller?' and he said 'Yes, sure,' and then two or three overs later, Sulieman Benn came back and I went to Russell for a final time and said 'Maybe him now?' and he still said, 'No, you'", ESPN Cricinfo quoted de Villiers, as saying. "It was just my day."
The player looked aggressive right from start, where he began to plonk bowlers all around the park. De Villiers finished off his innings with 16 sixes, 9 fours, with his final score reading 149 runs from 44 balls.
It was one of the most breathtaking innings the world had ever seen.
With just one wicket down, he had nothing to lose after such an astonishing start given to the team by the openers with 247 runs for the opening stand.
He put the foot on the accelerator and only stopped after he reached a score of 149.
"My thinking was just to be aggressive," said the SA captain. "I had no pressure on me. I could free up nicely, knowing that if I get out, there are quite a few guys to come who could hit the ball.
"You don't very often just come in and get momentum behind you right away. More often than not, you've got to work for it. Today was an exception.
"Out of nowhere, you hit a couple in the middle and then start going. Sometimes you've got to work harder to get that sniff, or get that click. Today it just happened from the word go."
The batsman was in such great nick that he knew what shot he was going to play much before the bowler even bowled the ball.
"You have to sort of read the game a little bit to see what the bowler is trying to do," added De Villiers.
"You can't just let him bowl at you, you have to try and take the initiative and put him under a bit of pressure. I don't know how many balls I faced, I premeditated but you've got to take the initiative and take the attack to the bowler, instead of him bowling to you."
The batsman en route to his record breaking innings shattered all records that came along the way. He broke Sanath Jayasuria's record of the fastest fifty, as the Lankan had taken 17 balls, while the Proteas batsman took 16.
It was only recently that the Indian batsman, Rohit Sharma had broken the record of maximum sixes, but AB de Villiers also equalled Rohit's record with 16 sixes to his name.
