Rohit Sharma has scored his fifth century of this World Cup against Sri Lanka on Saturday (Reuters Photo)Rohit Sharma played another brilliant knock against Sri Lanka in India’s final World Cup group match at Headingley in Leeds on Saturday, having brought up his fifth century of this World Cup and his 27th ODI ton overall. He brought up his century in 92 balls. He was then dismissed for 103 off 94 balls.
Five centuries is an all-time record for most tons in a single edition of the tournament. Kumar Sangakkara, who had scored four centuries in the 2015 World Cup, had been the previous holder of this record. Rohit had scored his fourth century of this World Cup against Bangladesh earlier this week.
Sharma is now the highest run-getter in this World Cup, having overtaken Shakib al Hasan (606 runs).
Sharma is also on course to breaking the record for most runs in one World Cup. Sachin Tendulkar (673 runs in the 2003 World Cup) and Matthew Hayden (659 runs in the 2007 World Cup) were the only two batsmen to have scored more than 600 runs in one edition of the World Cup before this year.
Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul put on 189 runs for the opening partnership, which is the highest opening stand put up by an Indian pair in World Cup history. Also, it is the highest opening partnership in World Cup 2019.
Sharma is having an exceptional form in the ongoing cricket World Cup 2019. He also became the first Indian batsman to reach the 1000-run mark in ODIs in 2019. He completed 1000 runs in his 20th innings. He has become the 3rd player after Aaron Finch (1138) and Usman Khawaja (1067) to reach 1000 ODI runs in 2019. Rohit’s 140-run innings against Pakistan at Manchester on 16 June has been his highest knock this year.
He had opened his World Cup campaign with an unbeaten 122 against South Africa on 5 June. He followed it with a half-century against Australia and a ton against Pakistan. Rohit hit his third ton of the World Cup 2019 against England on 30 June but it went in vain as India lost the match by 31 runs. He then followed it up with another century against Bangladesh.
The Indian opener has been consistent with the bat since 2017. He amassed 1293 runs with an average of 73.8 in 2017. While in 2018 he scored 1030 runs with an average of 73.6 and now even in 2019 he has reached 1000-run marks with an average of over 56.3.
