India v Sri Lanka fourth ODI: Rohit Sharma hits record-breaking 264 as India win by 153 runs
Friday 14 November 2014 07:33, UK
Rohit Sharma created history with the highest individual score in a one-day international - 264 - as India beat Sri Lanka by 153 runs to go 4-0 up in the five-match series.
Sharma’s 173-ball innings included nine sixes and 33 fours as India reached 404-5 in Kolkata on Thursday.
In reply, Angelo Mathews top-scored with 75 as the tourists were 251 all-out in 43.1 overs to slump to their fourth successive loss with one match left to play.
Sharma’s total beat the previous world record of 219 made by fellow Indian Virender Sehwag against West Indies in 2011, while he also became the only man to score two double centuries in ODIs after he hit 209 last year against Australia in Bangalore.
Sehwag and former team-mate Sachin Tendulkar are the only other players to reach 200 in ODIs.
Sharma was finally caught off the last ball of the innings by Mahela Jayawardene off Nuwan Kulasekara and he received a guard of honour from the Indian players as he left the pitch.
But it could have all been different if Thisara Perera had not dropped the batsman on just four in the fifth over after Shaminda Eranga had extracted a thick outside edge down to third man.
Once I got to 50 I knew I had to make a century because it was a good batting wicket and we knew 350 was easily chaseable. That made me stay there as long as possible.
The right-hander's progress to 50 was relatively pedestrian, taking 72 balls, but from that point he unleashed an array of shots which destroyed the tourists' bowling attack.
The acceleration from 100 to 250 was phenomenal, taking just 66 deliveries, and although he was dropped a further two times, in the 46th and 47th overs, by then the game had gone well beyond the control of a demoralised Sri Lanka.
Feat
Sharma, playing his first ODI since injuring his hand in India's tour of England, became only the second man to reach 250 in a limited-overs game but the highest score of 268 from Surrey's Alistair Brown in 2002 came in a domestic match.
His innings, with Virat Kohli contributing 66 at better than a run-a-ball, helped India post the fourth-highest total in the history of ODIs.
He put on 202 for the third wicket before Kohli was run out. Sharma also put on 128 runs in just 58 balls with Robin Uthappa for the fifth wicket, with Uthappa contributing 16 at a run-a-ball in the partnership.
"Once I got to 50 I knew I had to make a century because it was a good batting wicket and we knew 350 was easily chaseable. That made me stay there as long as possible," Sharma said in his post-innings interview.
"It is important to look at the team score as that is how you build an innings."
Eden Gardens is one of Sharma's favourite venues as he scored 177 on his Test debut there a year ago, having previously registered an Indian Premier League century at Kolkata in 2012.
"It is a very special ground for me," he added.
Fanced with the daunting task of needing 405 to win, Sri Lanka were quickly reduced to 48-4 in the 10th over and although Mathews and Lahiru Thirimanne (59) put on 118 they were never close to reaching their target as seamer Dhawal Kulkarni finished with 4-34, while Umesh Yadav, Stuart Binny and Akshar Patel took two wickets apiece.
