With the team in trouble Indian skipper Rohit Sharma stepped up big time today in the Super 4 match against Sri Lanka by cracking a terrific half-century and carrying India’s batting.
Leading from the front with the bat, Rohit Sharma played a blistering knock of 72 runs from 41 balls, in the process walloping 5 fours and 4 sixes. It was because of his innings that India were able to put up a par total of 173, which, however, didn’t prove enough as Sri Lanka won by 6 wickets on the penultimate ball of the match.
Rohit Sharma breaks Sachin Tendulkar and Shahid Afridi’s records in Asia Cup
En route his 72-run innings today, Rohit Sharma became India’s highest run-scorer in the Asia Cup history (ODI and T20I Asia Cup combined). He also became the first Indian to complete 1,000 runs in the continental showpiece event and now has a total of 1016 runs in the Asia Cups in 30 innings.
He went past Sachin Tendulkar’s tally of 970 runs in the tournament which he’d amassed in only 21 innings at an average of 51. Rohit is now third on the list of all-time run scorers in the Asia Cup behind the Sri Lanka pair of Sanath Jayasuriya (1220) and Kumar Sangakkara (1075).
Apart from Tendulkar’s record, another legend’s record which upstaged is Shahid Afridi. Rohit broke Shahid Afridi’s record of the highest number of sixes in the tournament history: with his 4 maximums against Sri Lanka, the Indian captain has 29 sixes to his name in the Asia Cup; Afridi had 26 sixes to his name and Jayasuriya is third on the same list with 23 sixes.
Rohit Sharma’s fifty goes in vain and India almost out of the final race
Rohit Sharma’s superb half-century went in vain as the Lankans gunned down the target of 174 with one ball to spare. Openers Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis set the tone for the chase with half-centuries each and recorded a 97-run opening stand. India tried to pull things back with a few wickets but Bhanuka Rajapaksa and skipper Dasun Shanaka always had the chase under their control and eventually pulled it off by escaping a scare from Arshdeep Singh in the last over.
While Sri Lanka now have a foot in the final, India have a foot back on the plane. For India to reach the final, Pakistan has to lose to both Sri Lanka and Afghanistan and India will have to defeat Afghanistan by a healthy margin to boost their nrr above what would be of Pakistan and Afghanistan’s if the previous two scenarios fall in their favor.
