Indian captain Rohit Sharma has created history by shattering a long-time record held by Sachin Tendulkar during the India vs Sri Lanka 2nd ODI. Rohit carried on his form from the first game to the second one and hit another fifty-plus score in the run-chase of the second match.
With his second-consecutive fifty of the series, Rohit has gone past Sachin in a major milestone. Rohit now has hit the most fifty-plus scores among Indian openers in International cricket. This was his 121st score in excess of fifty while opening the batting. Sachin is now below him with 120 such scores at the top of the order.
Notably, he is sixth in the overall list. David Warner leads the tally with 146 fifty-plus scores at the top of the order, while Chris Gayle is second with 144 such scores. Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya is third in this chart (136) ahead of Desmond Haynes (131) and Graeme Smith (125).
Most fifty-plus scores by openers in International cricket:
1. David Warner: 146 in 374 matches
2. Chris Gayle: 144 in 441 matches
3. Sanath Jayasuriya: 136 in 506 matches
4. Desmond Haynes: 131 in 354 matches
5. Graeme Smith: 125 in 342 matches
6. Rohit Sharma: 121 in 334 matches
Apart from this, Rohit also went past former Indian skipper MS Dhoni in the list of most runs by Indian players in ODIs. Dhoni had 10773 ODI runs to his name and the Indian skipper needed only seven to go past the former wicket-keeper batter.
With this, Rohit became the fifth-highest Indian run-scorer in ODIs, standing behind Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid.
The Indian skipper raced quickly off the blocks, taking down Dunith Wellalage at one end. He kept taking his chances and displayed his trademark six off a pull and then got to his fifty in 29 balls with another six.
The Indian skipper could not continue his carnage for much longer after his fifty as he departed for 64 while trying to reverse-hit Jeffrey Vandersay in the 14th over. Pathum Nissanka, standing at backward point had to run to his right and then put in a dive to hold onto to a brilliant catch.
Earlier, Sri Lanka put up 240/9 batting first with some strong late contributions from Kamindu Mendis and Dunith Wellalage. Sri Lanka won the toss and batted first once again.
