After riding on a sumptuous hundred from Shikhar Dhawan and quick-fire 63 from wicket-keeper batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India put on a show against Sri Lanka which helped the Virat Kohli-led side to post 321 on board for the loss of six wickets in their 50 allotted overs.
Flowing brilliant knock, Dhoni was caught by Dinesh Chandimal at long-off on the bowling off Thisara Perera after scoring 63 off 52 balls as his innings was comprised of seven boundaries and two sixes whereas; Kedhar Jadhav remained unbeaten on 25 off 13 balls as his innings was laced with three fours and a solitary six.
Hardik Pandya (9 off 5 balls), who was aiming to score quickly, was caught by Kusal Perera at the sweeper cover region, on the bowling of fast bowler Suranga Lakmal, after promising all-rounder aimed to clean the padded-up boundaries.
At the score of 261 runs in 44.1 overs, rollicking in form, Shikhar Dhawan, who was flawless on the day, played a significant role for his side as he brought up his sublime century while battering the Lankan bowling attack at The Oval.
Dhawan trudged off the ground after being caught in the long-on region by Kusal Mendis, as the latter was aiming to go on the on-side on the bowling of Lasith Malinga.
After adding 40 runs for the third-wicket with Shikhar Dhawan, Yuvraj Singh (7 off 18 balls), who looked struggling to rotate the strike, was dismissed by Asela Gunaratne as the latter chopped on as he was late to drop his bat before seeing ball rolling onto the top of zing bails which saw India at 179 for three in 33.3 overs.
Rohit alongside Dhawan posted 138 runs for the opening stand which has further piled-up the miseries for the Lions skipper.
In 26th over, Sri Lanka bagged a prized scalp of Virat Kohli (0 off 5), who tried to work the ball toward the third man for a single, but the delivery got big on him following extra bounce to see him nudging it straight into the gloves of Niroshan Dickwella.
In 25th over, Rohit Sharma was dismissed by Lasith Malinga when he was batting on 78 off 79 balls as his quality innings was laced with six fours and three sixes.
Rohit tried to pull the ball and was caught by Thisara Perera when he tried to pull the ball into the stands as the delivery got better of him to see the latter completing a simple catch at the square leg.
Coming to the bat, Indian openers repeated the same where they had left off against Pakistan while flaying the bowling line-up of Sri Lanka which saw right-handed batsman Rohit Sharma and left-handed batsman Shikhar Dhawan posting a tenth hundred-run stand as openers in One-day Internationals.
After winning the toss making a comeback, Angelo Mathews won the toss and opted to bowl fast owing to the green tinge in the highly-anticipated clash at The Oval on Thursday.
The all-rounder was struggling with his calf-injury before declaring himself fit for the do-or-die clash.
While making three changes after Chamara Kapugedera picked a knee injury in nets a day before the game saw Thisara Perera and Danushka Gunathilaka coming in the Playing XI.