Rohit the rocket man blasts third ODI double ton
INDIA v SRI LANKA ODI ROUND-UP
ROHITSharma stole the show on a hazy day in Mohali with his third double century in ODI cricket, taking just 36 balls to go from a century to 200 runs.
Standing in as captain for the newly-wed Virat Kohli, Sharma’s unbeaten 208 steered his side to 392-4 to enhance their hopes of drawing the series against Sri Lanka level after defeat in Dharamsala.
“Winning the game was important for me and the team after that loss, it was a great day,” said Sharma, taking the team player stance.
With his 153-ball stay cementing his place as one of the game’s jewels in the short formats, hitting a new national record of 45 sixes inside a calendar year.
Of course, talk soon turned to how his latest double hundred compares with his past feats having also passed 200 against Australia in 2013 and again when facing Sri Lanka the following year.
“In the first two 200s I got the century in the 38th over and I kept telling myself to hold my shape and hit through the line,” said Sharma, who scored 209 against Australia and a careerbest 264.
“I did pretty similar things in the earlier ones too – getting 50 off 70 balls. This wicket was superb to start off, the longer I stayed the easier it became to bat on.
“All three came at crucial times; the Australia one was a decider, the Sri Lanka 264 – I came back after a three-month lay-off after a big injury, and this one also – after a humiliating loss, we wanted to come back as a team, as a batting unit especially.”
The scoreboard was dominated by triple-digit figures as Sharma and his opening partner Shikhar Dhawan brought up their 100 partnership after 21 overs, and Nuwan Pradeep’s 10 overs produced no wickets for 106 runs.
With the score at 115-1 when Dhawan fell for 68 to the left-arm spin of Sachith Pathirana, Sharma fired into top gear with Shreyas Iyer at the opposite end.
Their stand of 213 found the Sri Lankans devoid of ideas and they did not fare much better in the chase, reaching 251-8 after 50 overs.
The tourists’ skipper Thisera Perera said: “We had a plan A, B and C but none of that clicked for us which was the most important thing. If you want to chase a score as big as this, you need starts and scores in the middle order as well. But none of it clicked for us.”
Perera did reserve praise for Angelo Mathews who scored an unbeaten 111 and bowled four overs at an economy rate of 2.25.
“Angelo did really well for us, but it wasn’t enough. We’ll come back hard in the decider.”
Winning by 141 runs to bring the series level at 1-1, Sharma and Perera will take their teams to Visakhapatnam for the series decider on Sunday.