India’s seventh consecutive victory guaranteed the team a spot in the semifinals of the World Cup, but the contest was the sort of farcical mismatches that leave the partisans elated and the purists disappointed.
The pitch was, in the words of Shreyas Iyer, playing beautifully, and India racked up a staggering 357/8 on it. But the Sri Lankans, seemingly batting on quite another surface, were fearful and tentative, and their worst nightmares seemed to have come alive in the pace trio of Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, and Jasprit Bumrah — the three picked up nine wickets for 42 runs.
The Sri Lankan top-5 aggregated two runs and the team folded up for 55 in 19.4 overs. Sri Lanka exhausted their best for the day with the second ball of the first innings, when Dilshan Madushanka bowled skipper Rohit Sharma with a beautiful off-cutter that took Rohit’s off-stump.
Sri Lanka’s performance nosedived from there, with Shubman Gill (92), Virat Kohli (88) and Shreyas Iyer (82) capitalising on dropped catches or sloppy fielding to take India to a huge total.
On a Wankhede track that looked placid, India piled on a mammoth 357 for 8 in 50 overs. Kohli enjoyed a 189-run second wicket stand with his heir apparent Gill, who looked a million dollars during his run-a-ball 92.
After a mini-slump, it was Iyer, who feasted against a mediocre bowling attack on a placid track, to get some form back before the match against South Africa at Eden Gardens, which will be played on a spicier track.
Starting briskly with a flurry of sixes, Iyer’s innings was instrumental in taking India past 350 after they lost both Gill and Kohli in quick succession. His innings featured six sixes and three fours.
Dilshan Madushanka (5/80 in 10 overs), who bowled a peach of a delivery to get skipper Rohit Sharma (4) first up, also denied all three Indian batters what would have been deserving hundreds.
He used the slower cutters and bouncers to good effect during his second and third spells. Kohli and Gill weathered the storm adequately well to get through the initial overs and piled up a mountain of runs to put India on top.
In the sixth over, Dushmantha Chameera almost had Kohli’s wicket but could not hold on to a return catch on his follow-through which saw the ball popping out. Beginning with a risk-free approach, Kohli and Gill stitched India’s highest-ever partnership in this World Cup for any wicket, putting on 189 runs from just 179 balls for the second wicket.
Kohli looked primed to equal the legendary Tendulkar’s tally of most ODI centuries but met with a soft end, lobbing a straight catch to cover after a masterful 88 from 94 balls which included 11 fours.
Sri Lanka crumbled under lights for a paltry 55 in 19.4 overs to ensure an eighth semi-final appearance for India at the global event. This was India’s biggest victory by margin of runs in the 48-year history of the tournament.
With 14 points from seven games, Rohit Sharma’s army will like to finish with an all-win record as they now face South Africa in Kolkata on November 5 and the Netherlands in Bengaluru on November 12.
Shami (5/18 in 5 overs) took his second five-wicket haul in this edition and with 45 scalps, became India’s highest wicket-taker in World Cup history. Siraj (3/16 in 7 overs) was equally incisive and Jasprit Bumrah (1/8 in 5 overs) formidable as ever in a picture-perfect bowling performance.
