Centuries from KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma saw the Indian team ease past Sri Lanka while Jasprit Bumrah leads India's bowling attack once again with top performance.
Rohit Sharma
India ended the league stage of the Cricket World Cup 2019, led by centuries by KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma. Mumbai’s Hitman Rohit Sharma became the first batsman to score five hundreds in a single World Cup and also equaled Sachin Tendulkar’s record of six World Cup hundreds overall.
Lasith Malinga playing his final World Cup game did not have a memorable outing, with figures of 82/1 in 10 overs.
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Earlier on, Angelo Mathews once again turned out to be a thorn in India's flesh with a gutsy hundred after a top-order collapse, guiding Sri Lanka to a respectable 264 for 7 in their final World Cup group league encounter here Saturday.
The former Sri Lanka captain (113 off 128 balls) played a near-perfect knock with his back to the wall, to give his team a chance to fight which looked bleak after the first hour.
Jasprit Bumrah (3/37 in 10 overs) was fast, accurate and mostly unplayable but Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/73 in 10 overs) had a forgettable day.
Mathews, who has now scored all his three ODI hundreds against India (Mohali and Ranchi earlier), hit 10 fours and two sixes in his final knock of this competition.
Mathews came in at 53 for 3 and it soon became 55 for 4 when Lahiru Thirimanne (53 off 68 balls) joined him.
The duo added 124 runs for the fifth wicket to bail the team out of the woods. He then had a 74-run stand for the sixth wicket with Dhananjaya de Silva (29 off 36 balls) that helped Sri Lanka get past the 250-run mark.
The 32-year-old Mathews' knock was a treat to watch as it was a perfect example of how to build an innings after a top-order collapse.
Ravindra Jadeja (1/40 in 10 overs) was given respect and only twice he chanced his arms for two maximums.
Kuldeep Yadav (1/58 off 10 overs), after being dropped against Bangladesh, did not show much improvement as he was bowling too full which both Thirimanne and Mathews found easy to negotiate.
Kuldeep, at the fag end of his spell, did get Thirimanne, who tried to hit the left-arm wrist spinner against the spin.
With Mohammed Shami rested, India played with two-seamers. While Bhuvneshwar was picked for special treatment by Mathews and Thirimanne, it was Bumrah, who had given his team initial momentum with two dismissals.
Bumrah dismissed Dimuth Karunaratne (10) with an angular delivery that was fuller than what the Sri Lankan skipper thought. He tried to play a cut shot but could only manage to edge it to Dhoni behind stumps.
The dangerous Kusal Perera (18) hit three boundaries before Dhoni pouched another one-off Bumrah to send him back.
Jadeja, playing his first game of the tournament, then earned dividends from Dhoni's flash reflexes as Kusal Mendis came down the track and missed the flight to find the bails whipped.
Pandya, who has had a decent tournament as a bowler, then removed the in-form Avishka Fernando (20), who looked promising during his brief stay.
With inputs from PTI
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