Another day, another century and another historic record. Rohit Sharma is making the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 into a record-breaking fest. Rohit created history by breaking Kumar Sangakkara’s tally of four centuries in one edition by blasting his fifth in the 2019 tournament alone. The Mumbai batsman also equalled Sachin Tendulkar’s tally of six World Cup tons. While Tendulkar took 19 years, Rohit took just 16 innings to achieve the feat. Rohit’s century, combined with KL Rahul’s second century and their partnership of 189 gave India a thumping seven-wicket win against Sri Lanka in Leeds on Saturday.
On a batting friendly wicket and clear sky, Sri Lanka skipper Dimuth Karunaratne won the toss and asked the opposition to have a bowl. Sri Lanka made one change to their playing XI, bringing Thisara Perera in place of Jeffrey Vandersay. India, on the other hand, made two changes bringing Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav into the side for Yuzvendra Chahal and Mohammad Shami respectively.
Dimuth Karunatne and Kusal Perera started the proceedings for Sri Lanka. However, the partnership didn’t last long as the former was sent back to the pavilion by World’s number one bowler Jasprit Bumrah. Dimuth Karunaratne was struggling against Jasprit Bumrah. On the fourth ball of fourth over, Bumrah bowled a good length delivery and Karunaratne tried to smah it between point and cover region, but in process gets a slight nip which went through to the keeper. The skipper contributed mere 10 runs to Sri Lanka’s total.
The Sri Lankan openers were back to the pavilion in first eight overs, and Indian team was looking for another breakthrough to grip game under their control. For this, Virat Kohli introduced Ravindra Jadeja into the attack and he produced result straightaway. Jadeja gave some flight to the ball and Kusal Mendis came down the track but misses it completely.
Mathews and Thirimanne steadied the ship and both laid the base for a revival. Both batsmen notched up their fifties and the partnership went past 100. Mathews was dropped on 61 by Bhuvneshwar Kumar off Ravindra Jadeja but the partnership ended when Kuldeep Yadav sent back Thirimanne for 53. Mathews raised his game and targeted Jadeja by hammering him for two boundaries and a six.
Mathews raised his game and targeted Jadeja by hammering him for two boundaries and a six. Mathews notched up his century by upper-cutting Hardik Pandya for a boundary. India bowled well in the death overs but Sri Lanka had staged a good recovery to 264/7.
In response, Rohit and Rahul started off in a blaze of glory and the partnership went past fifty in just the seventh over. Both batsmen never looked uncomfortable and they stroked boundaries at will. Rohit blasted two sixes off Dhananjaya de Silva and things looked ominous for Sri Lanka. Rahul went past his fifty by hammering two fours and a six off de Silva and when Rohit thumped Kasun Rajitha for a boundary, he created history.
Rohit smashed his 27th century but it was his fifth in this single edition of the World Cup. His fifth ton was a new world record and it broke the previous record held by Kumar Sangakkara in which he blasted four consecutive centuries. Rohit’s century took him past Shakib Al Hasan for most runs in the 2019 edition of the tournament and it also put him closer to Sachin Tendulkar’s overall tally of runs, which is 673 in the 2003 edition in South Africa. However, for the third straight match, Rohit fell immediately after a ton.
Rahul joined in the fun and stroked his second century while Virat Kohli showed his class with some wonderful boundaries. The margin of victory suggests India are hot favorites to win the title and it will be possible due to the exploits of Rohit at the top.
