Captain Virat Kohli on Sunday hit a second straight century as India swept the series 5-0 after beating Sri Lanka by six wickets in the fifth and final one-day international.
Fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar took a maiden five-wicket haul to help India dismiss Sri Lanka for 238 in 49.4 overs, before the visitors replied with 239-4 with 21 deliveries to spare.
Kohli was unbeaten on 110 following his 131 in the fourth match. He faced 116 deliveries and hit nine fours for his 30th one-day international century in his 194th match.
Photo: Reuters
Kohli now stands second with Australia’s Ricky Ponting in the number of one-day centuries behind India great Sachin Tendulkar on 49. The India captain has made his 30 centuries in 181 matches fewer than Ponting.
Kedar Jadhav made 63 for his second one-day half-century and shared a 109-run stand for the fourth wicket with Kohli before getting out just two runs from victory.
Kohli was also part of a 99-run third-wicket stand with Manish Pandey (36), who joined his captain at 29-2.
Kumar was named man of the match for his 5-42, which held Sri Lanka to a modest total, while fellow paceman Jasprit Bumrah was named man of the series for taking 15 wickets.
“ODIs we didn’t win three games in a row before this ... We wanted to be relentless, we wanted to create good habits,” Kohli said of his team’s approach to the series. “That helped us to come here and play how we wanted to play.”
“Getting a man of the series award on the sub-continent as a fast bowler is a great achievement,” Kohli said in praise of Bumrah.
Sri Lanka captain Upul Tharanga said that his team had failed in every department in the series and none of the plans were executed well.
“In five matches we could not cross 250 even once,” Tharanga said. “We’ve got a lot to improve.”
BANGLADESH V AUSTRALIA
Reuters
Captain Mushfiqur Rahim and Sabbir Rahman yesterday shared a century stand to help Bangladesh fight back from Nathan Lyon’s five-wicket haul and lead the hosts to 253-6 on the opening day of the second and final Test against Australia.
Leading Australia’s three-pronged spin attack with the new ball in hand, Lyon claimed three wickets in the morning session and another soon after lunch to reduce Bangladesh to 85-4 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong.
Sabbir and Mushfiqur arrested the slide with a 105-run stand for the fifth wicket.
Sabbir fell after tea, but Mushfiqur was batting on 62 at stumps with Nasir Hossain on 19.
Desperate to level the series after being humbled inside four days in Dhaka, Australia went in with three spinners and a lone paceman in Pat Cummins, a strategy they had not employed since 1978.
Mushfiqur won an important toss and unsurprisingly opted to bat against a spin-heavy Australia side, but the hosts did not get the start they were looking for.
Opener Tamim Iqbal looked uncomfortable against Cummins’ pace and was spilled in the slips by Glenn Maxwell, but Lyon ensured it did not really matter, trapping the opener leg before wicket for 9 with a quicker delivery.
Four overs later, Imrul Kayes fell in the same fashion after Australia successfully reviewed the original not-out decision.
Soumya Sarkar added 49 runs with Mominul Haque, but Bangladesh suffered another setback on the stroke of lunch.
Lyon sent down a skidding delivery to dismiss Soumya for 33 and returned after the interval to claim Mominul for 31, the fourth successive leg before wicket decision.
Ashton Agar took the important wicket of Shakib Al Hasan, the architect of Bangladesh’s thrilling 20-run win in Dhaka, for 24, with under-fire Matthew Wade taking a fine catch behind the stumps.
Sabbir was not afraid to play his shots and he hit Lyon for six in his 66, before Wade effected a smart stumping to give Lyon his third five-wicket haul in successive Tests.
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