New Delhi: The formidable Indian side are all geared up to complete yet another whitewash over the beleaguered Sri Lankan team when the two face each other in the last and final one-day international match at Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, tomorrow.
The Test series had ended in a 3-0 whitewash with Virat Kohli being the first Indian captain to lead the side to an overseas cleansweep in a series of three or more matches. And now with an emphatic four-match win over the Islanders the Men in Blue would desire to extend their dominant run with an ODI series whitewash.
It has been one exciting outing for the Indians. In fact, it has clearly turned out to be a series filled with experimentation, for the World Cup 2019. Few have seen a comeback while few others starting as debutants, and all that Ravi Shastri and the selectors are looking into is a pack of well-defined 18 to 20 players who can head to England for the coveted tournament.
While for Sri Lanka, it has been one disastrous summer. A group stage exit from ICC Champions Trophy 2017 winning just one of the three matches played, then came a historic moment for the 11th ranked Zimbabwe team who stunned the Islanders with a 3-2 ODI series win, finally ending with a battering from the Indian squad. But what has been worth pondering about for the Sri Lankan Cricket board is that the 1996 World Champions have lost a chance for an automatic qualification spot in World Cup 2019.
Here are the statistics in line for the fifth and final ODI match between India and Sri Lanka...
1) A win at Premadasa Stadium would be India's first ODI clean sweep over the Sri Lankan team in Sri Lanka. They had earlier swept aside the Islanders in an ODI series, but both were played in India. Overall, it would mark their 10th ODI clean sweep.
2) If Team India can once again amass a total of 350-plus runs then it would turn out to be a world record. They currently at first place alongside South Africa with 24 such scores.
3) Mahendra Singh Dhoni needs just 24 runs to leapfrog former Indian skipper Mohammad Azharuddin (15,593) to stand fifth on the list of most runs for India accounting all three formats of the game.
4) Going by his present form and ability to hold on to his wicket, fans speculate yet another half-century from the wicketkeeper-batsman. Well, one more half-century could add up his tally of fifties to 100. He would become the 14th person in the world to achieve this feat.
5) India skipper Virat Kohli needs one, just one more blistering century to equal Aussie great Ricky Ponting's tally of 30 ODI centuries. He would ergo become second on that list with only one person left to beat – Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar (49)
6) If he can notch up 17 more runs after smashing his 30th ODI ton, he would become the seventh Indian batsman to reach the mark of 15,000 runs across all formats of the game.
7) And if he can smash 33 more runs after equalling Ponting's mark, he would overtake fellow Indian Yuvraj Singh to become sixth-highest ODI run getter among Indin batsman. Kohli is presently on 8477 runs.
8) After a series of dismal performances against the Sri Lankan side which saw the opener amass mere 37 runs in 10 innings, Rohit Sharma bounced back to form to hit two back-to-back centuries. If he can emulate the same once again at the Premadasa Stadium, then he would find himself alongside Pakistani greats Zaheer Abbas and Saeed Anwar, South African wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock, Kiwi international Ross Taylor, Pakistani batsman Babar Azam, and South African batsmen AB de Villiers and Herschelle Gibbs, at position two. Only Kumar Sangakkara has four such knocks to his name.
9) Both Kohli and Rohit had notched up centuries at Premadasa Stadium and now with the fifth match scheduled at the same venue if the duo can once again entertain the crowd with another astounding ton then – Rohit would become the fifth batsman to achieve the mark Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya, Gibbs and Kohli being the other four; while the skipper would script a record being the first ever to hit a hat-trick of centuries at the venue.
10) Dhoni is still one stumping behind in becoming the first wicketkeeper ever to affect 100 stumpings. In the third ODI match, the Ranchi-based cricketer and equalled the world record set by Sangakkara with 99 stumpings.
11) Jasprit Bumrah has been absolutely sensational in the ODI series so far. With 13 wickets from four matches, which also includes his maiden five-wicket haul that he had scalped in the third game, the pacer is now needs one more wicket to surpass Ajantha Mendis's record of most wickets in an ODI bilateral series between India and Sri Lanka. However, two more would take him past Chris Woakes ' 14 on list of most scalps in a bilateral series in Sri Lanka.
