Kohli torments Sri Lanka again for clean sweep

COLOMBO: Skipper Virat Kohli scored his 30th one-day international century to lead India to victory in the fifth and final oneday match on Sunday as the visitors won by six wickets to complete a 5-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka in Colombo.

Sri Lanka elected to bat and were going steady at 185-4, with Angelo Mathews and Lahiru Thirimanne notching up half-centuries, but they collapsed in the final 11 overs as they lost six wickets for 53 runs.

Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who was named man of the match, marked his maiden ODI five-wicket haul as powerful performances from him and spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah limited the hosts to 238 all out.

India’s opening batsmen Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma fell early to leave India at 29-2 but impressive play from Kohli, who scored 110 off 116 balls, and Kedar Jadhav, who scored 63 off 73 balls, led them to victory.

Kohli’s second consecutive century of the series moved him level with former Australian captain Ricky Ponting for the most ODI centuries. The duo are joint second with 30 centuries each while Indian ace Sachin Tendulkar holds the record with 49.

Former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni became the first wicketkeeper to collect 100 ODI stumpings, surpassing Sri Lanka’s retired captain Kumar Sangakkara. India whitewashed the hosts 3-0 in the preceding Test series, prompting the entire selection panel to resign.

Sri Lanka’s 2019 World Cup participation is now uncertain as they failed to get the number of victories required for automatic qualification.

The two teams will play a Twenty20 international tomorrow at the same venue. Reuters