5th century, MOM, top scorer, Sharma speaks with bat to win last league game
Rohit Sharma’s fifth century of the tournament lit up a dead rubber match just for the ledgers at Headingly on Saturday with KL Rahul scoring his maiden World Cup ton (111) and Angelo Matthews performing well in stressful circumstances to give himself a three-figure presence too.
Sharma, enjoying his platinum run in the tournament, became the first ever batsman worldwide to score five tons in a single World Cup, that too three on a trot. He is now the leading run scorer of the tournament with very few to challenge him into the semi-finals.
This time, Sharma decked up his century with 14 fours and two sixes with just 94 balls taken. Though he has two of his three double hundreds against the Lankans, he walked in a somewhat similar manner to his earlier two innings, scoring 103.
He spooned a slower one from Rajitha straight into the hands of Mathews at mid-off as a silenced crowd got up in ovation and cheered his walk back to pavilion with constant applause. Sharma, who has four Man of the Match awards to his name till now and as India go into their knockout round, this will come in as a solid support base to launch their fight for the Final at Lord’s.
The lazy charm of Sharma’s batting hides a lot of hard work his bat has been doing on difficult pitches and conditions not rising to the occasion. He scored a century against the South Africans to announce his arrival into the game and then followed it up against Pakistan, England and Bangladesh. Against the Lankans, his acumen fluffed away all talk of a slowed down wicket and evened out the advantage his skipper had lost to the toss.
“I’ve been trying to do my job, not thinking about milestones, my job is to keep my head down and do my job. I have to keep telling myself what sort of shots I can play on the pitch and what kind of bowlers are bowling to me. I have stuck to that kind of discipline and have learnt from my past mistakes,” Sharma said modestly after the match.
Meanwhile, there was a lot more happening on the fringes of the match, but Sharma’s dazzling show brought all the attention back to the middle despite pranksters flying anti-India banners trying their level best to disrupt proceedings and embarrass the nation politically. The match had its emotional moments too, with pacer Lasith Malinga playing his last World Cup match as also umpire Ian Gould who raised his finger in the middle for the last time after umpiring 74 Tests and 140 ODIs.
As the match ended in India’s favour with 6.3 overs to spare and 7 wickets in hand, all eyes and talk quickly went to the South Africa-Australia match at Manchester to decide whether India goes to Manchester or Birmingham, plays New Zealand or England. South Africa, in the last game of their campaign, mysteriously rediscovered themselves to score 323 and the Aussies had already lost Finch at 5 runs, when India closed their handsome league campaign with just one loss to England in nine matches.
Lanka, already out of the reckoning had put up 265 on board after losing four wickets within 55 runs and 12 overs before Angelo Mathews put up a century on board to bring some sanity on the collapsing scorecard. Matthews ton, duly applauded by Sanath Jayasuriya and Aravinda de Silva in from the general stands, came under stress but was solid and chink less, with 10 fours and two sixes. He was finally taken in by Jasprit Bumrah at 113. It was business as usual for Bumrah who returned with a three-wicket haul giving away just 37 runs even as his Bhuvneshwar Kumar had the heaviest toll figures with 73 runs and just one wicket.
Overall, a comfortable, win with no hiccups that should raise hackles going into the knockout match. A beaming skipper thanking “the amazing bunch” he has led closed the day saying “don’t want to be one-dimensional. We need a good balance and whatever combination provides that we will go with it,” he said. It’s a happy space, something that Sharma and his mates are relishing and relying on as they take the bus to the semi-final on MS Dhoni’s birthday.