India Vs Sri Lanka Fourth ODI, 2017: An Analytic Amble On The Records Erected Or Demolished

The long tour to Sri Lanka is almost rolling in its last going through pages where the story has been in its worsen motion expanding the darkest clouds over the future of Lankan cricket. The fourth ODI between India and Sri Lanka in Colombo has inflicted the unforgettable blow to Lankan cricket as their poor run chasing endeavor has been brutally knocked down by the mighty Indians at the humiliating score of 207. Indians batting first has piled up the mammoth target of 376 with the help of skipper Virat Kohli’s and Rohit Sharma’s production of sublime centuries during the reciprocation of which the Lankan batsmen displayed a very shabby game playing which caused them the fourth consecutive defeat by 168 runs against India and put them a step ahead to succumb a 5-0 whitewash from Indians.

As it is pretty much evident to all that this was the historical game for both the nations as many records are made or broken in the duration of this match. A stroll to all of these is as follows:

• Kohli (131 runs off 96 balls) and Rohit (104 off 88) made merry on a batting beauty to guide India to 375 for five, the highest total posted by a visiting team in an ODI in Sri Lanka.
• This was the biggest home defeat for Sri Lanka in ODIs by 168 runs against India in the very soil of Colombo(RPS) during the year of 2017 whereas the previous benchmark was 147 that too against Indians in the soil of Colombo only during the year of 2009.
• In terms of the partnership stand between Kohli and Rohit, it has been improved on the previous highest second wicket stand on Sri Lankan soil197 runs added by Dhawan and Kohli in the first ODI of this current series in Dambulla. It was also India’s third-highest second wicket partnership against Sri Lanka in ODIs, after 318 at Taunton in May 1999, and 236 at Nagpur in March 1999 both set by Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. This was also their third 200-plus stand as a pair equalling the record held jointly by Sachin Tendulkar and Ganguly, as well as Gautam Gambhir and Kohli.
• Chewing over this victory, it has been enumerated as Kohli’s the most wins (26) from career’s first 34 ODIs as a captain following Viv Richard’s 28 wins, Ricky Pointing’s 27 wins.
• The final flourish was provided by MS Dhoni (49 n.o. off 42), who achieved a memorable milestone of 300 ODIs with the help of this fourth ODI against Sri Lanka.
• In Lankan perspectives, the only cherishing factor floured was Malinga’s 300th wicket haul.

Things are going from bad to worse for Sri Lanka, who needed to win at least two matches in the ongoing series to seal automatic qualification for the 2019 World Cup. They can still directly qualify, provided the West Indies don’t win more than three of their upcoming five ODIs against England.