India defeat Sri Lanka once again!
India defeated Sri Lanka for the fourth consecutive time in the ongoing ODI series. Chasing a target of 376 runs, Sri Lanka could only manage 207 runs before being bundled out by Indian bowlers. For India, Bumrah, Kuldeep and Pandya each picked up 2 wickets. In the first innings, India had scored 375 runs with Kohli and Sharma both slamming centuries.
Having bagged the five-match series with an unassailable lead of 3-0, Indian side saw 4th ODI as an opportunity to experiment with the squad. In the 4th ODI against Sri Lanka at the Premadasa Stadium, three changes were made to the team which included Manish Pandey for Kedar Jadhav, Kuldeep Yadav in place of Yuzvendra Chahal, and Shardul Thakur for Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
The toss went in India's favour and skipper Kohli chose to bat first. For the first time in this series, India are batting first. Interestingly, of the 16 times Kohli has won the toss in ODIs, this is only the second time he has elected to bat. Premadasa traditionally is a good batting wicket and a hard pitch report today meant an even bounce.
In the 4th ODI against Sri Lanka, captain Virat Kohli slammed a 131-run innings to score his 29th ODI century. With this he moved up on the list of most-hundreds in ODIs. Only Sachin Tendulkar (49) and Ricky Ponting (30) have more 100s than the 28-year-old. Rohit Sharma too joined the party by bringing up his 13th ODI century, a back-to-back in the series.
At the end of first innings India stood at 375/5, a tough total to chase for the hosts. Apart from Kohli's and Rohit's big knocks, Manish Pandey and MS Dhoni contributed with scores of 50 and 49 respectively. MS Dhoni, playing his 300th ODI, went on to set a new record for most not outs in ODIs (73).
