Canberra, Feb 24 (IANS): Explosive West Indies batsman Chris Gayle scored the highest cricket World Cup score by smashing 215 runs in a Pool B encounter against Zimbabwe at the Manuka Oval here Tuesday.

West Indies made 372 for the loss of two wickets.

His 147-ball knock included 10 boundaries and 16 sixes. The previous best World Cup score was 188 which was scored by South Africa's Gary Kirsten against the United Arab Emirates way back in 1996.

This is the first instance that the 200-mark has been crossed in the quadrennial event. However, three other batsmen have scored double centuries in One-Day Internationals (OD)), incidentally all of them being Indians.

Legendary Sachin Tendulkar was the first to score an unbeaten 200 against South Africa in 2010. The next year, Virender Sehwag smashed 219 against the Windies.

Current India opener Rohit Sharma is the only batsman with two double hundreds to his name which came against Australia, 209 in 2013, and Sri Lanka, 264 in 2014. The latter is the highest individual score in ODIs.