Virat Kohi and Rohit Sharma scored centuries for India. (Source: AP)
Virat Kohli would not have thought that he would be out in the middle so soon. And nobody would have thought that he will be in bloody good touch from from the word go. He leaned into the drive and put it away through covers for four. Next ball he picked up the mid-off area and got the same result. He hit three consecutive boundaries to set the tone of his innings and by the time he was dismissed in the 30th over, he had 131 runs to his name — his 29th century — he had 14 more fours and two sixes.
Rohit Sharma scored his second consecutive century against Sri Lanka, Manish Pandey scored an unbeaten fifty and MS Dhoni fell one short of his own in his 300th ODI. All four batsmen had scored at strike-rates of 100 and India scored at 7.5 runs per over to finish with 375 for 5 in the 50 overs after winning the toss and electing to bat on a flat and hard wicket in Colombo.
India handed debut to Shardul Thakur and replaced Yuzvender Chahal and Kedar Jadhav with Kuldeep Yadav and Manish Pandey as Kohli made a rare decision to bat first. Sri Lanka also handed debuts Dilshan Munaweera and the left-arm spinner Malinda Pushpakumara. Their third change was Wanindu Hasaranga.
Once Shikhar Dhawan got out in the second over, Kohli and Rohit got together and the last time they were at crease together when India batted first in an ODI, the latter went on to score the record highest individual score and India managed more than 400 runs.
Once again it looked India will post over 400 runs as the two had taken India to 225 for 1 by the end of the 29th over. But, Kohli became Lasith Malinga’s 300th ODI wicket while Angelo Mathews picked up two wickets in two balls to hinder India’s run-rate.
Rohit made 104, his lowest score once he has crossed hundred, but fell to a short ball after Hardik Pandya, promoted up the order, hit one straight to deep square-leg. KL Rahul fell to Akila Dananjaya as India failed to build on the platform laid by the two centurions.
Dhoni, playing his 300th ODI, made 49 runs and Pandey made fifty to help India take 91 runs in the final 10 overs. They shared an unbeaten 101-run stand off 74 balls.
Only Mathews gave runs below six per over but he only bowled 6 overs for his two wickets. All other Sri Lankan bowlers costed runs at more than seven runs per over.
