Pune, Oct 19 (IANS) India skipper Rohit Sharma on Thursday overtook West Indies’ legendary batter, Brian Lara, to become the fourth-highest run-scoring batter in ODI World Cup history, during the match against Bangladesh at MCA Stadium in Pune on Sunday.
However, he missed out on his 54th half-century by two runs, getting out at 48 off 40 deliveries. With this innings, Rohit overtook Lara (1225) to become the fourth-highest scorer in the history of ODI World Cups. He now has 1243 runs in World Cups and is only behind Sachin Tendulkar (2278 runs), Ricky Ponting (1743 runs), and Kumar Sangakkara (1531 runs).
Chasing the target of 257 runs, Rohit took the aggressor role while Shubhman anchored the Indian inning. Rohit took the attack to Bangladesh pacer Shoriful Islam in the first over itself, smashing him for two boundaries. He attacked Shoriful in the third over again, hitting him for a boundary and a massive six off a short delivery.
Rohit eventually got dismissed by Hasan Mahmud in the 13th over, getting caught at the deep square leg boundary. He scored 48 runs off 40 balls, smashing seven boundaries and two sixes.
Rohit has been in prime form in the ongoing World Cup. After being dismissed for a duck against Australia, Rohit bounced back with a massive hundred against Afghanistan, before scoring a half-century against Pakistan.
–IANS
hs/bsk