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4th ODI: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma shine as clinical India pummel Sri Lanka by 168 runs

Riding on brilliant tons from Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma followed by a clinical bowling effort, India defeated Sri Lanka in the 4th ODI by a colossal 168 run margin.

4th ODI: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma shine as clinical India pummel Sri Lanka by 168 runs

Colombo, Aug 31: Riding on brilliant tons from Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma followed by a clinical bowling effort, India defeated Sri Lanka in the 4th ODI by a colossal 168 run margin here on Thursday (August 31).

Match scorecard

Chasing a mammoth target of 376 in the stipulated 50 overs, the entire Sri Lankan side folded for 207 in 42.4 overs and went down by 4-0 in the five-match series. India, thus, handed Sri Lanka their biggest defeat - in terms of run margin - at home.

Angelo Mathews top scored with 70 for the hosts but no other batsman could offer any resistance to the Indian bowlers, who kept picking up wickets at regular intervals.

Milinda Siriwardana (39) and Wanindu Hasaranga (22) were the other two batsmen who tried to forge some partnership with Mathews.

Kuldeep Yadav (2/31), Jasprit Bumrah (2/32) and Hardik Pandya (2/50) picked up two wickets apiece for India while one wicket was shared between debutant Shardul Thakur and Axar Patel.

Earlier, Kohli slammed a quickfire 96-ball 131 while Sharma hit his second consecutive hundred to lay the foundation for the visitors to post huge target for Sri Lanka to chase.

The right handed Delhi batsman notched up his career's 29th hundred to give visitors an aggressive start. The 28-year-old is now only behind Ricky Ponting (30) and Sachin Tendulkar (49) in terms of centuries.

Kohli departed after a well made 96-ball 131. He became Lasith Malinga's the 300th victim in the 50-overs format.

Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma too completed yet another brilliant century, his second in a row. The Indian vice-captain reached his career's 13th ODI century. But he was dismissed soon after by Angelo Mathews for 104.

Indian Team coach Ravi Shastri greets to Indian team members as they leaves the ground after their win in the 4th ODI match against in Colombo

The hectic pace of scoring continued as Kohli and Sharma celebrated their 100 partnership off only 76 balls with the latter also reaching a half-century off 45 balls.

Kohli faced 96 balls and hit 17 fours as well as 2 sixes while Sharma's innings had 11 boundaries and three maximums.

En route their partnership, Kohli-Sharma duo broke a number of records. Their partnership improved on the previous highest 2nd wicket stand on Sri Lankan soil -- 197 runs added by Dhawan and Kohli in the first ODI of this current series in Dambulla.

It was also India's third-highest 2nd wicket partnership against Sri Lanka in ODIs, after 318 at Taunton in May 1999, and 236 at Nagpur in March 1999 -- both set by Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid.

This was also their third 200-plus stand as a pair equalling the record held jointly by Sachin Tendulkar and Ganguly, as well as Gautam Gambhir and Kohli.

Mathews struck in two balls as the hosts showed some fight back. Akila Dananjaya maintained his good form against KL Rahul as he got rid of the young Karnataka batsman for 7.

But, Dhoni, playing his 300th ODI, once again took the momentum away from the bowling side and stitched another 100-run partnership. The 36-year-old batsman along with Manish Pandey (50*) took the visitors to another huge total.

Shikhar Dhawan was the first Indian wicket to perish as the opener was dismissed in the second over of the match. The left-handed batsman was dismissed by Vishwa Fernando in his very first over.

Lankan bowlers had a nightmarish time with pacers Lasith Malinga (1/82 in 10 overs) and Vishwa Fernando (1/76 in 8 overs) taken to task. Akila Dananjaya (1/68 in 10 overs) also did not cause any trouble to the batsmen.

Earlier, it was the sixth toss that Kohli won on the current tour of Sri Lanka and elected to bat. Having already won the five-match series, India decided to test their bench and thus made three changes to their side.

Manish Pandey, Kuldeep Yadav made their comeback to the side while pacer Shardul Thakur was handed his debut cap. Yuzvendra Chahal, Kedar Jadhav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were rested. Three changes were also made by the Sri Lankan side, which was being led by Malinga.

Story first published: Thursday, August 31, 2017, 23:36 [IST]
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