Virat Kohli and Manish Pandey struck fifties to lead India to a seven-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the one-off T20I at Colombo. India won the toss and put Upul Tharanga’s side in to bat. Dilshan Munaweera’s fifty and an unbeaten 40 from Priyanjan helped the hosts finish on 170/7.
In reply, ‘Men In Blue’ lost both the openers early in the run chase. After which, skipper Kohli took the responsibility to guide India to victory.
The victory helped India whitewash Sri Lanka 9-0 on the tour. It was for the first time that a visiting team had beaten the hosts across all formats by a 9-0 margin. Australia are the only other other team to whitewash a team 9-0, when they beat Pakistan in 2009-10, but that was at home.
With his 82, Kohli claimed the record of scoring most runs in T20I chases. The Indian captain, who has scored 1018 runs while chasing, surpassed Brendon McCullum’s tally of 1006 runs. He’s now also the third-highest run-getter in T20Is behind McCullum and Tillakaratne Dilshan.
Wednesday’s innings was not an aberration, Kohli has been India’s mainstay while chasing. He has averaged 99.66 in last 10 successful chases and crossed fifty on eight occasions. His overall average while chasing is a freakish 84.66.
It doesn’t end there. In his 50th T20I match, Kohli became the fastest to reach 15,000 international runs. He reached there in just 304 matches and broke the record of Hashim Amla.
Feature image: Reuters