SL v IND, 5th ODI Review: India complete a historic double whitewash; agony for the hosts

Talk about humiliations and this should be right up there amongst the greatest of all time. India has managed to pull off a sensational 5-0 ODI series triumph at the Lankan backyard, to back up their 3-0 clobbering in the Test series. The young and vigilant troops led by Virat Kohli broke the dead lock of the Islands being an impregnable fortress for the Sri Lankan side and this is bound to send shock waves around the world.

After a long time, the flip of the coin went in favor of the hosts and they decided to pick up the willow first. It didn’t prove to be a great call as they had lost their opener Niroshan Dickwella very early, courtesy a fantastic knuckle ball from Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Upul Tharanga didn’t care what happened at the other end and started spanking boundaries at will.

Yet, Dilshan Munaweera followed the suit and gifted his wicket to Bhuvneshwar. A killer blow followed as Tharanga, who was looking so brilliant in the middle, got out in the final over of the power play and that left Sri Lanka in a spot of bother. Angelo Mathews and Lahiru Thirimanne had to replenish the flow of the innings and in the process, they seemed to have forgotten the format they were playing.

Both these experienced campaigners did portray great resilience but runs just dried up. Full credit to the Indian bowlers for bowling a stringent line, but the batters could’ve done a lot better is a bitter pill to swallow. Both players registered half-centuries and also added a 100-run partnership, but India seemed to have the control all the way through.

Bhuvneshwar provided the breakthrough by sending Thirimanne back, not before scoring 102-ball 67, at a mediocre strike-rate of 65.69. Mathews too fell after scoring a 98-ball 55 and the scoreboard read 194 with the Islanders into their 42nd over. What followed was a catastrophic collapse as everyone fell like a pack of cards in an attempt to audaciously up the ante.

MS Dhoni was kept busy by the spinners towards the end as Sri Lanka finished at 238 losing all their wickets with two more balls remaining in the innings. After a long time, Bhuvneshwar had something to cheer about in the blue jersey as he managed to pick up a mind-boggling five-fer, justifying the faith shown by his skipper.

Another day, another ton for Virat Kohli

It all sounds like a poetic fairy tale which can never happen in reality, but it has indeed happened. Virat Kohli equaled the legendary Ricky Ponting on the list of most hundreds in ODI cricket after registering his 30th ton in the 50-over format. Considering a fact that he’s just 28 and he is second in that elite list is just unbelievable.

Before that happened, Ajinkya Rahane was dismissed way too soon as he failed to capitalize on the chance he got to open. Rohit Sharma(16) too tried to be too authoritative and lost his cool, playing a silly shot off Vishwa Fernando. India was two down inside the powerplay, but that didn’t bother anyone.

Skipper Kohli and Manish Pandey(36 off 53 balls) stuck in there for quite a long period, collecting runs relatively swiftly. This partnership was much needed for the visitors as India was strangling in a predicament at 29/2. Kohli got to yet another blazing half-century as the duo added a sensational stand, which fell just one run short of 100.

Pandey fell prey to some excellent work with the ball from Pushpakumara, but the stage was well set for a whitewash. Kedar Jadhav came out to bat and he was exceedingly fluent with his stroke play. He played just the way he loves to, going for the big shots whenever he wished to. Kohli started playing the second fiddle in this partnership and the duo made a mockery of Tharanga and his troops.

Jadhav scored a much-needed half-century and Kohli got to his 30th ODI ton with a cheeky single towards point. The duo added a hundred run stand before Jadhav got out with 2 runs left to win. He scored a valiant 63 off 73 balls and with a quintessential text book straight drive, Kohli rounded off the series and added a mind-boggling triumph to his glorious cabinet. The 28-year-old registered 110 off 116 balls which included 9 boundaries.

Brief Scores

Sri Lanka: 238 all out in 49.4 overs (Lahiru Thirimanne 67, Angelo Mathews 55; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 5/42)

India: 239/4 in 46.3 overs (Virat Kohli 110*, Kedar Jadhav 63, Manish Pandey 36)