New Delhi: Virat Kohli played another blistering knock to notch up his 30th ODI century as Team India registered a six-wicket victory over the beleaguered Sri Lankan team in the fifth and final One-Day International match played at Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, today. The Men in Blue thus became the first Indian side to whitewash Sri Lanka in an ODI series in Sri Lanka. (SL vs IND,5th ODI: As it happened...)
Eying a modest 239-run target, India lost Ajinkya Rahane (5) in the fifth over of their innings. Lasith Malinga bowled a shorter delivery to which Rahane played a pull over the square-leg region only to find Munaweera in the deep. Virat Kohli (90) walked in next to join Rohit Sharma (16) at the crease. But the latter departed few deliveries after when he scooped a Vishwa Fernando delivery and Pushpakumara caught a blinder at the backward square-leg region to dismiss the in-form opener.
Virat then combining with Manish Pandey (36) for the third wicket, the duo stitched an applauding 99-run partnership to revive India's score to 128 runs. En route, the India skipper notched up his 50 runs from 53 deliveries. Pushpakumara spun in a great delivery in the 27th over that skied off the leading edge of Pandey's bat and flew straight to the fielder at mid-wicket.
Kedar Jadhav (63) then joined Virat Kohli at the crease to race past the 200-run mark in the 39th over. The duo wove a 109-run partnership to close the gap to mere two runs before the former departed in the 47th over of the match, inviting MS Dhoni to celebrate alongside Kohli who played the match-winning strike.
The skipper was indeed in his red-hot form as he notched up his 30th ODI ton to equal Ricky Ponting's tally of ODI centuries. He now stands second on the list alongside the Aussie great, but still 19 behind the table topper Sachin Tendulkar. He also became the first batsman this year to cross the 1000-run mark in ODIs.
Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat first. Left-handed batsman Niroshan Dickwella (2) and skipper Upul Tharanga (48) opened up the innings for the hosts. But the former fell victim to a knuckle ball delivery from Bhuvneshwar Kumar as he struck the shot straight into the hands of the pacer. It was the 27-year-old's first wicket in this series.
Alongside Dilshan Munaweera (4), the skipper stitched a 26-run stand. Tharanga battered Shardul Thakur with a flurry of boundaries that helped the hosts accumulate 50 runs from just 47 deliveries. But Munaweera was soon sent off after Virat Kohli clutched onto a fabulous catch at mid-off. Jasprit Bumrah then struck in the final over of the first powerplay to dismiss Tharanga and robbed of his opportunity to notch up a fifty. With that wicket, Bumrah became the leading wicket-taker in an India-Sri Lanka ODI series. With his then 14th wicket, he had surpassed spin wizard Ajantha Mendis, who scripted the mark back when India had toured Sri Lanka in 2008.
The hosts once again looked at complete dismay. With 63 runs on the board and three wickets down, fans had expected another day of disappointing performance. But Lahiru Thirimanne (67) and Angelo Mathews (55) stitched a commendable and a match-reviving 122-run stand for the fourth wicket to bolster their score to 185 runs. In fact, it was their highest wicket for any partnership in the ongoing series for the Islanders.
Thirimanne's patient knock that witnessed the batsman lace three boundaries and a six, notched up his 35th ODI fifty and second in the series in 83 deliveries, while Mathews registered his second ODI fifty in the series and it came from 79 deliveries. They indeed did provide ample rays of hope to the Sri Lankan dug-out and Team India was in dire need of a breakthrough.
And Bhuvneshwar to the rescue. The pacer returned for his second spell in the 39th over of their innings and outfoxed the left-handed batsman with a ravishing cramped-in delivery to rip off the middle stump. And chinaman Kuldeep Yadav dismissed Angelo Mathews off a poor choice of hit which Dhoni had comfortably taken it behind the stumps. And soon the remainders fell like nine pins.
At one point in the game, the discussion was that, can Sri Lanka reach the 270-plus mark or even 300, but it all turned sour. Wanidu Hasaranga (9) departed few deliveries later and then Dhoni got his record-scripting 100 stumpings in ODIs when Yuzvendra Chahal outfoxed Akila Dananjaya (4) in the 43rd over of their innings. The wicket-keeper ergo overhauled Kumar Sangakkara's 99 stumpings.
Meanwhile, Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed Milinda Siriwardana (18) and Lasith Malinga (2) to bag his maiden five-wicket haul in ODI cricket. With 5/42 it was his career-best figure. He ergo joined Ashish Nehra, Irfan Pathan and Bumrah in becoming the Indian pacers to scalp a five-for in bilateral series against Sri Lanka.
The Islanders bundled out for 238 runs. Yes, they failed to reach the 250-run mark, but this was their highest total in this series.
Team India will now gear up for the one-off T20 encounter against Sri Lanka, at Premadasa Stadium, on September 6.
