Hitman strikes : The Tribune India

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Hitman strikes

MOHALI: On a pleasant March evening in Mumbai in 2012, after he bid adieu to ODI cricket, Sachin Tendulkar made a prediction — two rising stars, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, would be able to break his records.

Hitman strikes

Rohit Sharma



Sunny Kaul

Tribune News Service

Mohali, December 13

On a pleasant March evening in Mumbai in 2012, after he bid adieu to ODI cricket, Sachin Tendulkar  made a prediction — two rising stars, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, would be able to break his records. 

Five years on, it seems Rohit is on a mission to create an entirely new set of order in world cricket. On a docile Mohali wicket today, Rohit blasted his third double hundred in ODI cricket and created enough heat with his strokes to warm up the atmosphere at a sparsely-filled IS Bindra PCA Stadium.  

Series 1-1 

The skipper smashed an unbeaten 208 off 153 balls to help India pile up a massive 392/4 against Sri Lanka in the second ODI, avenging the humiliation the team suffered in Dharamsala on Sunday. Sri Lanka were never in the game today. The series is now level at 1-1, and the decider will be played in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.

Left with a mountain to climb, Sri Lanka lost in-form Upul Tharanga for 15 and Danushka Gunathilaka for 16. At 30/2 in the eighth over, the game was as good as over. Debutant Washington Sundar cleaned up Lahiru Thirimanne (21), and Yuzvendra Chahal then removed the aggressive Niroshan Dickwella (22), Asela Gunaratne (34) and Thisara Perera (5) to push Sri Lanka to the edge. Angelo Mathews waged a lone battle at the other end, but his unbeaten 111 was never going to be enough, and the visitors lost by 141 runs.

Rampaging Rohit

The day belonged to Rohit, who had blasted 264 against the same opposition in Kolkata in 2014 and 209 against Australia in Bengaluru the preceding year. 

Rohit was slow off the blocks and played a second fiddle to Shikhar Dhawan after India were asked to bat first under a cloud cover, on a “sticky” wicket. The duo made a circumspect start, adding just 32 runs in the first 10 overs, but once they got the measure of the conditions, they picked up pace.      

The duo added 115 runs for the opening wicket before Dhawan dragged one from left-arm spinner Sachith Pathirana straight to Lahiru Thirimanne at mid-wicket.  

Mumbaikars at work

Rohit brought up his 50 with an elegant drive off Pathirana to long-off. No. 3 Shreyas Iyer, who seemed clueless in Dharamsala, was much more comfortable here and played a perfect foil to his senior Mumbai counterpart. The two raced to a 100-run partnership to take India past 200, and Iyer brought up his maiden half-century in the 38th over. The 23-year-old then cut loose, slicing Perera to the third man fence for a six and then flicking him to the midwicket for another boundary. Rohit, meanwhile, quietly brought up his 16th ODI century with a single.

With the stage set for the final onslaught, the two batsmen went hammer and tongs. Rohit smashed Lakmal for four sixes in the 44th over to bring up India’s 300. And the skipper did not stop there — next at the receiving end was Nuwan Pradeep. Rohit first deposited a low full toss into the stands before hitting another six straight over the bowler’s head.

Rohit clobbered another six, this time over backward point off Perera, before the Sri Lankan skipper broke through with the wicket of Iyer after a fine 70-ball 88.

The carnage continues

MS Dhoni walked in to a thunderous applause, but his stay in the middle lasted just five balls. The Indian charge, though, continued as Rohit brought out a full repertoire of shots, smashing Lankan bowlers at will, racing from 100 to 200 in just 36 balls.

At the start of the 50th over, Rohit was on 191 — would he get his 200? Yes was the answer as he hit Perera for a six off the first ball and then ran a couple of 2s. The last 10 overs yielded 147 runs, 81 coming in the final five.

SCOREBOARD

India

R Sharma not out 208

S Dhawan c T’manne b Pathirana 68

S Iyer c sub (PC de Silva) b Perera 88

MS Dhoni lbw b Perera 7

H Pandya c Thirimanne b Perera 8

Extras: (b-1, lb-1, w-11) 13

Total: (4 wkts, 50 overs) 392

FOW: 1-115, 2-328, 3-354, 4-392

Bowling

Angelo Mathews 4-1-9-0

Suranga Lakmal 8-0-71-0

Thisara Perera 8-0-80-3

Nuwan Pradeep 10-0-106-0

Akila Dananjaya 10-0-51-0

Sachith Pathirana 9-0-63-1

Asela Gunaratne 1-0-10-0

Sri Lanka

D Gunathilaka c Dhoni b Bumrah 16

U Tharanga c Karthik b Pandya 7

L Thirimanne b Sundar 21

A Mathews not out 111

N Dickwella c Sundar b Chahal 22

A Gunaratne st Dhoni b Chahal 34

T Perera c Dhoni b Chahal 5

S Pathirana c Dhawan b Kumar 2

A Dananjaya c Sharma b Bumrah 11

S Lakmal not out 11

Extras: (LB-2, W-9) 11

Total: (8 wickets in 50 overs) 251

FOW: 1-15, 2-30, 3-62, 4-115, 5-159, 6-166, 7-180, 8-207

Bowling

Bhuvneshwar Kumar 9-0-40-1

Hardik Pandya 10-0-39-1

Jasprit Bumrah 10-0-43-2

Washington Sundar 10-0-65-1

Yuzvendra Chahal 10-0-60-3

Shreyas Iyer 1-0-2-0


  • 208* This is Rohit Sharma’s third ODI 200, after 209 against Australia at Bengaluru in 2013 and 264 against Sri Lanka in Kolkata in 2014
  • 36 Balls taken by Rohit to score his second 100 today, and he went from 116 to 208 off just 27 balls with 11 sixes and three fours
  • 124 Runs scored by Rohit today through 6s and 4s. He ran 66 singles and got 18 runs with 2s. He played 153 balls in all, 53 of them being dot-balls
  • 188 Is Rohit’s strike-rate after completing his centuries in ODIs. His strike-rate today after reaching 100 was 284.21
  • 150s Rohit has made 5 scores in excess of 150 in 173 ODIs, joint most along with Sachin Tendulkar (463 ODIs) and David Warner (in 101 ODIs)
  • 45 6s by Rohit in ODIs this year, the most for an Indian, going past Tendulkar’s 40 sixes in 1998. The overall record is 58 sixes by AB de Villiers in 2015
  • 219 By Virender Sehwag is the top score by a captain in an ODI innings. Rohit’s 208* today is now the second-highest by a captain in ODI cricket

Dhoni’s Bolt moment

He is 36, but he can give some of the best athletes on the cricket field a run for their money. Just before the start of the match, as the players were going through their warm-up drills, MS Dhoni and 24-year-old Hardik Pandya engaged in a short sprint. Though Pandya was quick to take the lead, Dhoni, like the Jamaican legend Usain Bolt, caught up with his opponent and beat him in a photo-finish. The run was highlighted on the big screen on a couple of occasions, raising a huge cheer each time.   

Fan favourite

In recent years, pitch invasions have become rare as security has been hiked up at grounds all over. However, one young man did manage to sneak into the ground today. An ‘ardent’ MS Dhoni fan breached the security ring around the field in the 17th over of the Sri Lankan innings and rushed straight to the former India skipper and touched his feet before being whisked away by a Punjab Police man, who came in chasing after him. Dhoni might be inching towards the dusk of his career, but the incident shows that there is no drop in adulation for the veteran cricketer. — Sunny Kaul

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