India defeated Sri Lanka by 7 wickets in their final league match of the 2019 Cricket World Cup at Leeds on Saturday. Also Rohit Sharma became the 1st man to hit 5 hundreds in a single World Cup, while KL Rahul hit his maiden World Cup century as well.
While chasing 256 runs, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul dominated Sri Lanka’s bowling attack to add 189 for the first wicket off 30.1 overs. Rohit Sharma scored his 3rd successive hundred in this World Cup and his 6th in World Cups, and his 27th in his ODI career.
Rohit Sharma also became the 4th batsman and the 2nd Indian to score 600 runs in a single edition of the World Cup. He also broke Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most runs at the end of the league stage of any World Cup.
Meanwhile, KL Rahul who was criticised for his poor shot selection, today looked more disciplined as he played more freely as he scored his 2nd hundred in one-day internationals.
Earlier, after winning the toss Sri Lanka opted to bat. Jasprit Bumrah did the early damage with 2 quick wickets. Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Perera were sent back inside the first 8 overs while Kusal Mendis fell to Ravindra Jadeja in his 1st over.
And when Hardik Pandya removed the dangerous Avishka Fernando in the 12th over, Sri Lanka were reeling at 55 for 4.
However, Angelo Mathews and Lahiru Thirimanne added 124 for the 5th wicket to haul Sri Lanka to a healthy total. While Lahiru Thirimanne fell for 53, Angelo Mathews went on to score his 3rd ODI hundred – all his 3 hundreds have come against India.
Sri Lanka finished with only 3 wins from 9 games and will go back home disappointed. While with this win India finished with 15 points in 9 matches. India will move on to the semi-finals which will be played on July 9 and July 11.
Source : Various