India vs Sri Lanka 4th ODI was MS Dhoni’s 300th One Day International and team India did everything in their hands to make a memorable outing for the former skipper. The hosts continued to have no answers for a dominating Virat Kohli-led attack and neither did they have anything to challenge the chariot of victory.
Thanks to inspiring knocks from Rohit Sharma (104) and Virat Kohli (131), India was able to register a total of 375/5 while batting first bit while the two gave India a good start, it was the classic century partnership between MS Dhoni (49*) and Manish Pandey (50*) that added to the horrors of Sri Lankan squad.
As MS Dhoni was playing his 300th ODI, there were two records to be broken by the former Indian skipper, one each with the bat and behind the stumps. While he finally became the batsman with the most number of unbeaten knocks in ODI, MS Dhoni is still waiting for his 100th stumping, which will make him the No. 1 wicketkeeper with the most number of stumpings.
As for the debutant, Manish Pandey, who was playing his first ODI, he managed an unbeaten fifty, thanks to MS Dhoni, who gave him a chance to finish the half-century at the cost of his own.
Coming to the second innings, the Sri Lankan squad didn’t even pose a challenge to the Men In Blue as the visitors ended up registering a 168-runs victory, after the hosts were bowled out at 207.
While the India vs Sri Lanka 4th ODI seemed to be a completely one sided event, many records were broken and here are some statistics from the match that gave India a 4-0 lead.
- This was India’s third biggest victory against Sri Lanka in ODIs.
- Virat Kohli now has the most number of double-century partnerships and he tops the list with ten such instances while the second best is Upul Tharanga with 7 ‘200-runs’ partnerships.
- This was the 12th time that MS Dhoni was stranded in the 40s by the end of fifty overs.
- Rohit Sharma now has 13 centuries in the 50-over format. This was his second consecutive hundred of the series as well as the fourth against Sri Lanka.
- Virat Kohli now has 17 international hundreds (10 in Tests and 7 in ODIs) as the Indian captain and he overtook former skipper Sourav Ganguly while achieving this feat.
- This was also Virat Kohli’s 29th ODI century and he now sits third on the all time list, behind Ricky Ponting (30) and Sachin Tendulkar (49).
- Overtaken Shaun Pollock and Chaminda Vaas, MS Dhoni played his 73rd unbeaten knock in ODIs, the most by any player in the format.
- This was Sri Lanka’s biggest defeat at home.
- MS Dhoni now sits in the fourth position in the all-time list of most sixes, behind Shahid Afridi (351), Sanath Jayasuriya (270) and as expected, Chris Gayle (238).
- Virat Kohli became Lasith Malinga’s 300th scalp in the India vs Sri Lanka 4th ODI.
- MS Dhoni’s 100th, 200th, and 300th ODI matches have all been against Sri Lanka.
- 375/5 is the biggest total by a visiting team in Sri Lanka and the previous best was also recorded by India when they scored 363/5 in February 2009.
- The 100-runs stand between MS Dhoni and Manish Pandey became the 400th-century partnership for India in the format. India leads the chart in this list while Australia comes in second with 366 hundred-runs stands.
- Virat Kohli reached 2000 runs against Sri Lanka in ODIs and he became the youngest batsman to score 2000 runs against the same opposition.
With the visitors leading the India vs Sri Lanka series by 4-0, there is nothing left in the last ODI, however, fans will be looking forward to MS Dhoni’s 100th stumping, which will make him the best ever wicket-keeper to ever feature in the sport.