KL Rahul celebrates his maiden WC ton
After a series of failures in converting otherwise encouraging starts, KL Rahul finally broke the continuation to smash his first century of the 2019 World Cup.
The Indian batsman, who was drafted into the opening slot to replace the injured Shikhar Dhawan, hit his fifth ODI century in the game against Sri Lanka at Leeds.
Rahul had been slow in his starts ever since the beginning of his World Cup campaign as an opener, and his innings were often devoid of closure. At times, he gifted away his wicket while attempting an unnecessarily flamboyant shot.
This time, too, Rahul made a similar start to the innings. He was aided well by Rohit Sharma, who has hit the purple-patch ever since the beginning of the tournament.
Sharma has hit five hundreds in the World Cup so far, which is the highest by any batsman at the World Cup.
While Rohit kept batting at a significantly higher strike-rate, Rahul continued to build his innings with a comparatively slow pace. However, he played with consistency this time, knowing that the target isn’t big enough to go for expensive shots.
Throughout his innings to the three-figure mark, Rahul hit 9 fours and one six.
This was KL Rahul’s 2ND ODI century, and the one which would give him plenty of confidence as India heads towards the knock-out stages of the tournament.
Earlier, India restricted Sri Lanka to 264/7 in 50 overs, with Jasprit Bumrah taking three wickets. Bumrah also entered the top-3 wicket-takers of the 2019 World Cup in the game.
Rahul and Rohit added 189 for the first wicket, with Rohit Sharma hitting 14 fours and 2 sixes for his 103.
