Kolkata: The Indian team, riding on a breathtaking hundred from skipper Kohli and a scintillating bowling performance from Bhuvneshwar Kumar completed their first ever ODI whitewash over the Sri Lankans, beating them by six wickets in the fifth and the final match in Colombo to win the series 5-0. This has been one of India’s most dominant performances in recent times and the visitors would be mighty proud of this achievement, after they had thrashed the hosts 3-0 in the Test series.
Virat Kohli, who had eased his way to a three-figure mark in the last match, got to his 30th ton equalling Ricky Ponting in the list of most hundreds in ODI’s. He now stands just 19 behind the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, who had scored a total of 49 ODI tons in his illustrious career. But the Delhi batsman has surpassed Tendulkar as he scored his 10th unbeaten ton in a chase, which is two more than the, ‘Master Blaster.’
Chasing 239 which is the highest the Sri Lankans have scored in the series so far, the Indians didn’t get off to a good start as they lost both their openers with just 29 runs on the board. The centurion from the last match- Rohit Sharma fell to left-arm paceman Vishwa Fernando for just 16 while Ajinkya Rahane, playing his first match of the ODI series could muster only 5 runs.
But in walked Kohli, who stabilised things as he and Manish Pandey stitched a solid 99-run stand before the latter threw his wicket away for just 36. But Kohli held fort at the other end as he continued to rotate the strike and kept the scoreboard ticking.
He never really let the Sri Lankans put pressure on the Indians as he put 109 runs with Kedar Jadhav (63), who too scored his first fifty of this series. Although, he couldn’t finish off the game, MS Dhoni, who has been in top form so far walked out to help India achieve one of it’s dominant ODI series wins.
Earlier, Upul Tharanga, returning from the two-match ban had won the toss and had chosen to bat first. Although he played some good looking shots to get his team off to a flying start, his partners didn’t cooperate. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who didn’t have a wicket to his name in the series so far, drew first blood as he sent back wicketkeeper batsman Niroshan Dickwella courtesy a good catch of his own bowling.
He dismissed Dilshan Munaweera too and put the hosts on the backfoot. Jasprit Bumrah, who had taken a five-wicket haul in the last game bowled beautifully and with control to send back Tharanga for a quickfire 48 of just 34 balls.
However the repair work was done by former skipper Angelo Mathews (55) and Lahiru Thirimanne (67) who stitched a 122-run partnership to help the Lankans stage a fightback. But after they fell one after the other, it was all the same for Sri Lanka as they slumped to another collapse, ending their first innings on 238 runs in 49.4 overs.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the star of the Indian bowling unit, registering his maiden five-wicket haul in ODI’s. Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal got one wicket each.
This was the first instance of two Indian pacers getting fifers in the same series.
Former skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni also made a new world record as he became the first skipper to reach 100 stumpings in ODI cricket after he stumped Akila Dananjaya off the bowling of Chahal.
The Indians have been absolutely clinical in all aspects of the game and never really looked to lose any match in the series so far, barring that second ODI in Pallekele when Dananjaya almost won the match for Sri Lanka. They would undoubtedly be a happy and a confident bunch heading into their home series against the Australians later in the month.
Brief scores-
Sri Lanka 238 all out in 49.4 overs (Lahiru Thirimanne 67, Angelo Mathews 55; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 5/42) lost to India 239/4 in 47.3 overs (Virat Kohli 110 n.o, Kedar Jadhav 63; Wahindu Hasaranga 1/29) by 6 wickets.
Man of the match- Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Man of the series- Jasprit Bumrah