India v/s Sri Lanka, 4th ODI: SL suffer biggest defeat at home as IND win by 168 runs – Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma scored centuries as India continued their winning streak on the tour.
India beat Sri Lanka in the fourth one-day international on Thursday to continue their winning streak on the tour. India now lead 4-0 in the five match ODI series.
Chasing a mammoth target of 376 runs to register their first win, Sri Lanka kept losing wickets at regular intervals and were never in contention for win.
Shardul Thakur earned his first ODI wicket as removed Dickwell to give India the first success. Mendis was then run out by KL Rahul’s direct throw. Muniweera was also caught behind the wickets by Dhoni.
Mathews was the only Sri Lanka batsman to provide any resistance and when he fell for 70, it did not long take the innings to fold.
This is Sri Lanka’s biggest loss at home in terms of runs.
Earlier, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma scored centuries as India set a huge target of 376 runs for Sri Lanka in the fourth one-day international at the Premadasa Stadium.
Virat, who won the toss and chose to bat, scored his 29th ODI century- surpassing Sanath Jayasuriya get to the third on the list of most centuries in ODI cricket. After India lost Shikhar Dhawan early, he and Rohit Sharma make easy meat of the Sri Lankan attack on a pitch that had not much to offer.
The two put on a 221-run stand before Sri Lanka paceman Lasith Malinga claimed his 300th ODI victim by dismissing Kohli. Hardik Pandya was next man in. However, he and Rohit Sharma were sent back by Mathews on back-toback balls. However, before that Rohit had completed his 13th ODI century, his fourth against Sri Lanka.
KL Rahul again failed to impress and fell to Akila Dananjaya.
Dhoni, playing his 300th match, joined Manish Pandey in the middle. The duo started slowly but added 101 runs off 74 balls to take India to 375. Dhoni remained unbeaten on 49 while Pandey made 50 not out.
Dhoni now holds the record for most unbeaten innings in one-day internationals.
With India having already sealed the series, they chose to test their bench strength, bringing in Manish Pandey, Kuldeep Yadav and the debutant fast bowler Shardul Thakur for Kedar Jadhav, Yuzvendra Chahal and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Sri Lanka made three changes too, handing debuts to the opener Dilshan Munaweera and the left-arm spinner Malinda Pushpakumara, and recalling the allrounder Wanindu Hasaranga. Chamara Kapugedera and Dinesh Chandimal, who both played the third ODI, missed out with injuries, while the fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera sat out with Sri Lanka opting to go for an extra spinner.
MS Dhoni makes his 300th appearance in ODIs, becoming only the second wicketkeeper-batsman, after Kumar Sangakkara, to do so.
India: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (capt), KL Rahul, MS Dhoni (wk), Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah.
Sri Lanka: Dilshan Munaweera, Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Kusal Mendis, Lahiru Thirimanne, Angelo Mathews, Milinda Siriwardana, Wanindu Hasaranga, Akila Dananjaya, Malinda Pushpakumara, Vishwa Fernando, Lasith Malinga
