Well lets look at it this way then.
Highest individual scores in an ODI match and the position they batted & where they played.
- Saeed Anwar: 194 off 146 balls vs India at Chennai - Opened
- IVA Richards: 189* off 170 balls vs England at Manchester - No.4
- ST Jayasuriya: 189 off 161 balls vs India at Sharjah - Opened
- G. Kirsten: 188* off 159 balls vs United Arab Emirates at Rawalpindi - Opened
- SR Tendulkar: 186* off 150 balls vs New Zealand at Hyderabad - Opened
- MS Dhoni: 183* off 145 balls vs Sri Lanka at Jaipur - No.3
- SC Ganguly: 183 off 158 balls vs Sri Lanka at Taunton - Opened
- ML Hayden: 181* off 166 balls vs New Zealand at Hamilton - Opened
- IVA Richards: 181 off 125 balls vs Sri Lanka at Karachi - No.4
- N Kapil Dev: 175* off vs Zimbabwe at Turnbridge Wells - No.6
Well the odds are that it will be some one who either opens or bats at three, Richards batted at four, but it is Viv Richards we are talking about who was the most destructive batsman to ever play, the amazing one when I first looked at it was Kapil Dev but they were 4-9 when he came into bat. I can't really be bothered going into detail on where the games were played or who against but this is a list of other scores over 150 and who scored the runs.
Gibbs - 175 & 153
Mark Waugh - 173
Wishart - 172*
Gilchrist - 172 & 154
Turner - 171*
Callaghan - 169*
Lara - 169, 156 & 153
RA Smith - 167*
Ponting - 164
Hudson - 161
Nazir - 160
Mongia - 159*
Gower - 158
Hayden - 158
Jayasuriya - 157
Symonds - 156 & 151
Richards - 153*
Azharuddin - 153*
Ganguly - 153*
Gayle - 153*, 152* & 152
Dravid - 153
Haynes - 152*
Tendulkar - 152
Strauss - 152
Jayasuriya - 152 & 151*
Chanderpaul - 150
Its funny that we are discussing skill over power or visa versa but there is a good mix of both in these lists.