Under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma, India was disappointed with the tied result in the opening ODI of the three-match series against Sri Lanka at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, where they finished on 230, the exact sore that the home side made during the first innings.
Expecting the pitch to slow down quite a bit in the second innings, the home captain Charith Asalanka, opted to bat first. They struggled early on against the fired-up pace bowling from the touring side, but the contribution from their lower order, led by young Dunith Wellalage’s unbeaten knock of 67 runs pushed them to that mark.
India made a great start in the chase, as the opening duo of Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma took them to a flying start of a 75-run stand in the 13th over, after which the former lost his wicket. The middle order kept on struggling, as hardly any batter could contribute much. None of them were able to convert their scores into big ones.
Indian bowling coach praises Rohit Sharma’s batting
The Indian bowling coach for this specific tour, Sairaj Bahutule, has praised the national captain for his masterclass of batting in the first ODI, where it hardly felt that he had been playing this format since the final of the ODI World Cup last year, which was more than eight months ago.
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The Nagpur-born began with a second ball six in the innings against Asitha Fernando, as he swung through the line to nail the ball over deep mid-wicket region. Two balls later, he got a thick edge as the ball raced away to the fence in the third-man area.
The veteran batter pulled Mohammad Shiraz, the debutant for the home side, over mid-wicket for a boundary before following it up with a huge six over deep square leg region for another six. When the left-arm spin of Wellalage was introduced into the attack, the batter smashed two boundaries in the fifth over.
Rohit Sharma celebrated his fifty in just 33 deliveries with a six against Akila Dhananjaya, with a slog sweep over square leg. That was his third fifty inside the first ten overs of an ODI, being the second in the list to do so after Virender Sehwag’s seven instances.
The opening batter, in a chase of 231 runs, cracked a knock of 58 runs in 47 balls with the help of seven boundaries and three sixes at a strike rate of over 120. Bahutule was in awe of the 37-year-old’s skills with the bat in hand.
“Rohit Sharma’s innings, I think, was fantastic because, you know, after the World Cup, this is the first ODI innings he played, and it didn’t look like there was a break.” The Indian bowling coach lauded the leader’s batting. “So, fabulous. He takes on the responsibility. He takes it on any opposition or any pace attack. He is very positive in his intent, and I think that’s the way he always plays and will continue to play.”
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In this process, Sharma also equaled Sachin Tendulkar with the most half-centuries as an Indian opener in international cricket across the formats. He now has 120 fifties, followed by Graeme Smith (125), Desmond Haynes (131), Sanath Jayasuriya (136), Chris Gayle (144), and David Warner (146) in the list.
In the list of most ODI runs for India, Rohit Sharma stands at number five currently, with 10767 runs in 255 innings, at an average of 49.16, celebrating 31 centuries and 56 fifties. He will need just two more runs to overtake Rahul Dravid to be fourth in the list.
