Mohali: India’s stand-in skipper Rohit Sharma, who powered his way to a majestic double hundred against Sri Lanka in the second ODI on Wednesday said that it was a wedding anniversary gift for his wife Ritika Sajdeh.
“I’m happy my wife is here with me on this special day. I know she would have liked this gift from me. She has been my strength. She has always been there for me. You go through so much stress in this sport, and having them around is always special,” said that Mumbai batsman at the post-match press conference.
Ritika was present when the right-hander was in full flow and her emotions got the better of her when Rohit crossed the 200-run mark and kissed the wedding ring and pointed to her in the stands.
He said, “This is our second anniversary, but more than that, we won the game. We were determined to do the right things in the middle, and right till the end we did that. As a group, we are looking forward to Vizag.”
After a disappointing show with the bat in the first match, Rohit led by example as he almost single-handedly tore apart the Lankan bowling on a good batting pitch to register his third double hundred in ODI cricket. He was also ably supported by Shikhar Dhawan (68) and Shreyas Iyer (88) as India ended up with a mammoth 392/4 in the first innings.
The visitors however didn’t give up easily as former skipper Angelo Mathews fought a lone battle and scored a hundred. But the target was to too big to be overhauled by Sri Lanka as they ended up with 251/8, 141 runs short of the huge Indian total. In the process of posting 392/4, India surpassed the highest total made at this ground beating South Africa’s 351/5 which they made against the Netherlands in 2011.