Breaking record after record

November 23, 2014

Breaking record after record

India have always been a stronger ODI team than a Test side, especially on their own soil. They usually lack fast bowlers but mostly their famed batting makes up for their bowling weaknesses.

Their current batting line-up consists of such big names as skipper MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan. They have the potential to lift next year’s World Cup if their fast bowlers click on Australia’s wickets.

Three of the top-10 run-getters in ODIs are Indians: Sachin Tendulkar (18,426), Sourav Ganguly (11,363) and Rahul Dravid (10,889).  Besides, three of the top five century-makers are Indians: Sachin (49), Ganguly (22) and Kohli (21).  Dhoni (52.85) and Kohli (52.61) are among the top-five batsmen as regards ODI batting averages.

India whitewashed Sri Lanka 5-0 in their recent series. The Indian fans will remember the series for a long time, but not for the clean sweep. The series will remain in their minds for Rohit Sharma’s record 264 runs which he scored in the fourth ODI at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, helping India win the match by 153 runs.

During the ODI series, Sri Lankan fielders dropped many catches, but the most costly was the one dropped by Thisara Perera when Rohit was on just 4 runs in the fifth over in that match. Rohit added 260 to his score. He was also dropped on 201.

Rohit smashed overall the fourth and his second double-hundred in the ODI history.

Amazingly all four double centuries have been scored by Indian batsmen.

This milestone was first achieved by Sachin, who scored 200 not out against South Africa in 2010. The next year Virender Sehwag made 219 against West Indies.

Rohit scored 209 against Australia in 2013.

In the 264 that he made against Sri Lanka, he hit 33 fours and nine sixes.

Rohit became the first batsman to score two double centuries in ODIs. He also became only the second batsman after Alistair Brown to score two double centuries in the history of List-A cricket. Alistair Brown scored 203 for Surrey against Hampshire in 1997 and against Glamorgan in 2002.

Rohit’s 33 boundaries is the highest number of fours in an ODI by an individual. He surpassed the record of Sachin and Sehwag, who had scored 25 each.

The 16 sixes that he hit during his double hundred against Australia remain a world record.

He scored 186 runs in boundaries to break the record of highest number of runs from boundaries in an ODI innings previous held by Shane Watson, who scored 150 runs (15 fours and 15 sixes) in his innings of 185* against Bangladesh in 2011.

Rohit had returned to the Indian side after two months of rest. On his return in a warm up match against Sri Lanka Rohit hit 145 runs off 111 balls.

Breaking record after record