Skipper Kohli Enjoys The Calm After Last Night’s Chaos 1
Virat Kohli. Image Courtesy: Getty Images

The Story

India cruised to a comfortable six wicket win over hosts Sri Lanka at the Pallekelle Stadium to pocket the five match series 3-0 with two games to spare.

Batting first, Sri Lanka managed just 217/9 in 50 overs. The Lankans were once again made to look timid by the Indian bowling attack led by fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah who snapped the maiden five wicket haul of his career.

Barring Lahiru Thirimanne, who registered a knock of 80 runs, no other Lanka batsmen could make any respectable contribution to the team’s total.

In response, India suffered early problems before Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni took control and added 149 runs for the 5th wicket to finish the chase in a hassle free fashion.

Rohit Sharma ended with an unbeaten at 124 from 145 balls while MS Dhoni finished with 67 from 86 balls.

It was the seventh successive bilateral series victory against Sri Lanka and the fourth on their home soil. India last lost an ODI series in 1997.

The bottling incident

This loss added to the continuous embarrassment which the Sri Lankan side is facing in recent times. After an underwhelming time in the Champions Trophy 2017, they suffered losses at the hands of Zimbabwe and now are currently getting hammered by India.

Frustrated by a spineless show last night, the spectators created trouble towards the end moments of the match and forced the umpires to stop play for about 35 minutes.

India was cruising at 210/4 after 44 overs and required just eight runs to win when angry spectators began throwing bottles in the playing area. The players had to be sent back into the dressing room while Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni waited in the middle as umpires tried to bring the situation under control.

Security forces later intervened and a bunch of spectators was evicted from the venue before the match was resumed and India fulfilled the formalities.

The calmness after the storm

Indian skipper Virat Kohli today tweeted about the calmness after the last night’s chaos. While this may not be a direct reference to the bottling incident, Kohli certainly was enjoying the fresh morning with another series honors to his credit.

Here is what he tweeted: A nice calming morning after a hell of a game last night. ‘Calm after the storm.’