Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 15
Virat Kohli lit up the dead rubber with an brilliant century — his third in four innings — as India annihilated a clueless Sri Lanka with a record 317-run margin in the third ODI to sweep the series here today.
Skipper Rohit Sharma (42 off 49) and Shubman Gill (116 off 97) shared a fluent 95-run opening stand before Kohli (166 not out off 110) propelled India to a daunting 390/5 with his 74th international hundred and 46th in the 50-over format.
Sri Lanka succumbed to the superb fast bowling of Mohammed Siraj, who struck four times inside 10 overs to shut the door on the opposition. They were all out for a meagre 73 in 22 overs, highlighting the gulf between the two teams.
India thus set a new record for the biggest margin of victory by runs in men’s ODIs.
Kohli is now only three short of equalling Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 ODI centuries. His conversion ratio is remarkable as he got to his 46th ton in 259 innings, while Tendulkar had taken 452 innings to get to 49 centuries. Before Kohli took over, Gill had played some high-quality strokes en route his second ODI hundred. With this effort, he repaid the faith of the team management which had picked him to open ahead of Ishan Kishan.
A 23-run over from Lahiru Kumara in the initial stages of the innings got India going. After Sharma flicked him for a six over deep midwicket, Gill collected four straight boundaries, three on the off-side and one flicked to the leg-side. — PTI
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