Mohali: Stand-in captain Rohit Sharma powered his way to a jaw-dropping double century as India beat Sri Lanka in the second ODI in Mohali on Wednesday to level the series 1-1.
The Mumbai batsman thus became the first in the history of the sport to have scored three double hundreds when he scored an unbeaten 208 of just 153 balls to helped India post a mammoth 392/4 after they were sent in to bat by Sri Lankan skipper Thisara Perera. This was India’s 100th 300-plus score in ODI cricket.
Rohit and Shikhar Dhawan (68) began things off in style with a 115-run opening stand that determined the fate of the game. The skipper was also ably assisted by Shreyas Iyer who scored his first ODI half-century after failing to make a mark in the first match.
Batting at number three, the youngster not only played a classy 88-run knock of 70 deliveries but also stitched a huge 213-run stand with Sharma as the duo completely dictated terms against the Sri Lankan bowlers who were poor with the ball.
But the lazy elegance of Sharma was the highlight of the day as he clobbered the bowlers at will in the process of scoring his second double hundred against the same opponents. He took 115 balls to complete the first hundred runs and he used up just 36 deliveries to get to his second, as he ended his innings with a strike rate of 135.95 with 13 fours and 12 sixes.
Sri Lankan captain Thisara Perera was the most successful bowler for his team amidst the onslaught as he scalped three wickets, giving away 80 runs. Suranga Lakmal, who had impressive figures of 4/13 in the first match returned wicketless this time as he was hammered for 71 runs in his eight overs. Nuwan Pradeep also suffered the same fate as his fellow bowling partners as he conceded 106 runs of his 10 overs without taking a wicket.
With such a huge target to chase, the Sri Lankans began the innings under pressure and lost the quick wickets of Danushka Gunathilaka (16) and Upul Tharanga (7) within 7.3 overs. The 18-year-old Washington Sundar, who made his debut scalped the third wicket as he sent back Lahiru Thirimanne (21) after disturbing the woodwork behind him.
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But former skipper Angelo Mathews wasn’t ready to surrender as he notched up his second ODI hundred en route to an unbeaten 111 of 132 deliveries. He also became the 10th Sri Lankan batsman to cross the 5,000-run mark in ODIs. His lone battle couldn’t win the game for the visitors as they succumbed to a 141-run loss. Yuzvendra Chahal was the best bowler for India as he scalped three wickets giving away 60 runs. Jasprit Bumrah took two wickets as well.
Brief scores-
Sri Lanka 251/8 (Angelo Mathews 111 n.o, Asela Gunaratne 34; Yuzvendra Chahal 3/60) lost to India 392/4 (Rohit Sharma 208 n.o, Shreyas Iyer 88; Thisara Perera 3/80) by 141 runs.