Kohli knock ensures sweep across all formats
Colombo: Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s (82, 54b, 7×4, 1×6) blitzkrieg ensured a comfortable seven wickets win in the lone Twenty20 game as the visitors completed a 9-0 rout of Sri Lanka, here Wednesday night.
It is the first time that an Indian cricket team have registered an all-win record across formats in an overseas tour. The only other side to have achieved such a feat was Australia against Pakistan in 2009-10.
Chasing a competitive 171 for win, Kohli led from the front while Manish Pandey (51 no, 36b, 4×4, 1×6) played second fiddle. In the process he hit the winning boundary to register his maiden T20 half century and took India over the line with four balls to spare.
Earlier, Dilshan Munaweera (53, 29b, 5×4, 4×4) smashed his maiden half century while debutant Ashan Priyanjan (40 n o 40b, 1×4, 2×6) played a useful hand to guide Sri Lanka to a respectable 170 for seven.
For India, young leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (3/43) picked up the highest number of wickets, but the pick of the bowlers was Kuldeep Yadav (2/20). They were well-supported by Axar Patel (0/28 off 4). It was the spinners who restricted the hosts who at one time threatened to up a 200-plus score.
India did not start well in the chase as they lost Rohit Sharma (nine) and KL Rahul (24) early. But then at the R Premadasa Stadium here, Kohli and Pandey put on 119 runs off 78 balls for the third wicket to set up India’s victory.
India were placed at 43 for two at the end of the powerplay, and the 50-run mark came up in the seventh over. Kohli, who had been a bit patchy till then started playing with a lot of authority and calmed the Indian nerves.
The Indian skipper reached his half century off 30 balls, it was his fourth consecutive 50-plus score in T20s against Sri Lanka. In the process, he became the fastest batsman to score 15,000 international runs across formats in 333 innings, improving Hashim Amla’s record of 336 innings.
Kohli also crossed Martin Guptill’s tally of 1806 runs to become the third-highest scorer in T20Is behind Brendon McCullum (2140) and Tilakratne Dilshan (1889).
Kohli was finally out caught at deep mid-wicket off Isuru Udana (1/36). At that point of time India were just 10 runs away from the victory target. MS Dhoni (one n o) and Pandey completed the formalities without duress.
Earlier, Priyanjan played a handy knock to save the hosts from the blushes after losing their way in the middle overs once again.
Key facts
99.66 – Kohli’s average in the last 10 T20 successful chases for India
6,907 – Runs scored by Kohli in T20 games, the most by any Indian. He goes past Suresh Raina’s tally of 6,872