Eden ODI: Rohit Sharma creates history as India crush Sri Lanka by 153 runs

Kolkata Rohit Sharma on Thursday created historyby smashing the highest individual ODI score with abreathtaking knock of 264 as India thrashed Sri Lanka by 153runs in the fourth cricket onedayer to take a 40 lead in thefivematch series here todayCourtesy Rohits mayhem India scored a mammoth 404 forfive and then easily bowled out the islanders for 251 in 431oversReturning after a 10week injury layoff Rohit hadeverything going his way after being letoff on individualscore of fourMumbai boys Rohit Sharma and Dhawal Kulkarni shone and helped the hosts crush Sri Lanka in the 4th ODI match at Eden Garden in Kolkata on ThursdayThe Mumbaikar paced his innings to perfection as he firstgot set during the initial 50 runs before exploding against aclueless Lankan attack as he scored his 264 off only 73balls that had 33 fours and seven sixesIn the process Rohit also broke compatriot VirenderSehwags earlier world record of 219 runs which he had setagainst West Indies in Indore back in 2011Roh is also the only batsman to register two doublecenturies in ODIs and also now holds the record for highestnumber of boundaries during his inningsThe epic milestone was reached when Rohit hit an elegantcover drive off Nuwan Kulasekara to become the first batsmanwith two double hundreds in ODIsRohit did have Lady Luck going his way as he wasdropped twice after reaching his double hundredThe stylish righthander was all set to carry his batthrough before he was holed out in the longoff region off thefinal delivery of the Indian inningsFittingly he received a Guard of Honour from histeammates who stood on both sides outside the dressing roomwith spectators also giving him a standing ovationIt couldnt have been a more memorable innings on the150th anniversary of the hallowed ground which has seen manyoutstanding individual performancesRohits magnificent knock will rank among the very bestplayed at this ground by the likes of VVS Laxman MohammedAzharuddin Sachin Tendulkar to name a fewThe fifth and final match of the series will be played atRanchi on November 16Standin captain Virat Kohli the other day termed Rohitas the Xfactor going into the World Cup and was vindicatedafter a knock which was class act405 was never going to be easy after Lanka lost theirfirst wicket for naught with pacer Umesh Yadav giving thebreakthrough by claiming Perera 0 in the second ballYadav next took the big scalp of Jayawardene cheaply asLanka were 423 as the victory looked very nearSkipper Angelo Mathews was the topscorer for thevisitors with 75 from 68 balls 9x4 1x6 and shared 118 runswith Lahiru Thirimanne 59 but it was too little looking atthe monstrous targetYadav 238 once again was the pick of Indian bowlerseven as Dhawal Kulkarni decimated the middle and lower orderwith best figures of 434 Stuart Binny and Axar Patel toochipped in with a couple of wickets eachThey say records are meant to be broken and at EdenGardens today something similar was experiencedOn any given day and on any surface 264 was onceconsidered a fighting ODI targetAnd as it turned out Lankans could not even get pastRohits individual score and were bundled out for 251 in 431overs to concede an embarrasing defeatThe innings was not only a mix of elegance class andtiming but luck too played a big role with Sharma tumblingrecord after record making the Lankans look like schoolboysIf the ground was Very Very Special for VVS Laxmanafter his careerdefining 281 Rohit who had made his Ranjidebut here too made this his second home having scoredhundred on Test debutIncidentally the Mumbaikar who scored 109 in the lastIPL here has hundreds in all the three formats here andtoday he had the record score in his first ODI appearance atEden GardensThe batsman used his wrists beautifully to the anglingEranga deliveries and cut anything when provided with a bit ofwidth Thanks to wayward bowling by Lankans Rohit was particularly ruthless in the Batting Powerplay that fetched India 57 runs as he smacked the bowlers all around the park before taking a deft single to deep square leg to notch up his fifth ODI century his first at this venueWhen Lankans batted only time when they looked likeputting up a fight was during the MathewsThirimannepartnership that yielded 118 runsIt was young Akshar who showed good temperament to get theopposition captain out after being deposited into the deepmidwicket stands off the previous deliveryHe bowled one that drifted in and Mathews who reached tooclose to the pitch of the delivery was beaten after the balltook an inside edge as Robin Uthappa whipped the bails in aflashKarn Sharmas 064 in 9 overs bowling performance wasan abberration as he went for 23 in an over where ThisaraPerera 29 lietrally launched into himThe leggie seemed to have got the length wrong and waspunished a lot for his halftrackers With a huge total on theboard Karns poor show didnt impact the overall performancemuchCredit should be given to Kulkarni who also had anindifferent start going for a few runs but came back in theend to get the wickets of Thirimanne Perera SeekkugePrasanna and KulasekaraIt was Akshar who finished the match when Ajantha Mendissswitchhit turned out to be a mishit