India vs Sri Lanka: The Record Breaking Spree Continues For Virat Kohli and Team India

India vs Sri Lanka Solitary T20I was expected to be a closely fought battle because it is a common fact that the shorter the format is, the better are the chances for a weak team to win as it takes only one great individual performance to win the game for the team.

That being said, the hosts still saw defeat in India vs Sri Lanka Solitary T20I but whatever fans might think, nobody can take it away from them that they finally gave us what we wanted, a close call.

After India opted to bowl first at R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, all Sri Lanka needed was a respectable total and some mistakes by the opposition. While they ticked the first box after registering a total of 170 runs, which has to be their best batting credentials in the India vs Sri Lanka series, when it came to the second innings, Virat Kohli & Co. was in no mood of mistakes.

Dilshan Munaweera (53) and Ashan Priyanjan (40*) might have given Indian bowling their worst beating of the series, but Yuzvendra Chahal (4-43-3) and Kuldeep Yadav (4-20-2) gave their team the needed breakthroughs and saved themselves from more collateral damage.

The target was not that big for team India but the early dismissals of Rohit Sharma (9) and Lokesh Rahul (24) gave Sri Lanka the upper hand but their celebrations were short lived as Virat Kohli (82) and Manish Pandey (51*), yet again, came up with a dominating partnership of their own for the 3rd wicket (119 runs).

By the time Sri Lanka got their next breakthrough, India was already at 161/3 in 18.3 overs and MS Dhoni had entered the field.

But in the next 5 balls, MS Dhoni just faced a solitary delivery, giving Manish Pandey the opportunity to complete his T20I fifty and it was well taken by the newbie (scoring 12 runs in 4 deliveries.)

And India became the first team to register a complete whitewash in an away series consisting of all three formats (9-0).

However, the ‘Men In Blue’ are on a record breaking spree, there were numerous other records that were made after the conclusion of India vs Sri Lanka series.

• Virat Kohli now has 1016 runs in T20I chases, the most by any player.

• The Indian skipper is now third on the list of highest run scorers in T20Is, McCullum (2140) and T Dilshan (1889) being the top two.

• Virat Kohli is now the only player to have scored more than 15,000 runs in international cricket at an average of over 50 and he is also the 33rd player to score more than 15,000 runs. Also, no player has more 50-plus scores in T20Is than Virat Kohli, who has 17 to his name.

• After beating Sri Lanka 9-0, India became the first country to whitewash a home side in all formats in the same tour.

• India won all the nine matches on this tour (Tests 3-0, ODIs 5-0 and T20I 1-0) and country has won more matches than India on a single tour.

• Kohli’s 82 is the joint-highest score in a T20I run-chase and he has the highest average of 84.66 in T20I run-chases.

• MS Dhoni (49.18) has the second highest average while chasing in T20Is among players who have scored at least 500 runs.

Now, India will host Australia for a 5-Match ODI series and a 3-Match T20I series, and after registering a complete whitewash in India vs Sri Lanka series, this is going to be their toughest test since the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy.