India’s pace trio had a walk in the park at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai as they bowled out Sri Lanka for a paltry 55 in the run chase of 358. It looked like a repeat of the Asia Cup 2023 final, only this time it was Mohammed Shami who took the most wickets among the three pacers. At one point, the Mumbai crowd wanted to see Virat Kohli in action with the ball and started chanting “Kohli ko bowling do (give the ball to Kohli)”.
The first time the crowd chanted was before the first ball of the 11th over was bowled. After the seventh wicket fell, Kohli gave in and entertained the crowd by warming up. Kohli’s reaction made the crowd go berserk in a one-sided affair that led to India booking their semi-final berth with seven wins in a row.
Earlier, Kohli was impressive with the bat after skipper Rohit Sharma fell to Dilshan Madushanka on the second ball of the innings. After getting dropped early in the innings, Kohli shared an 189-run partnership with Shubman Gill. He scored 88 runs from 94 balls featuring 11 fours.
While Kohli broke Sachin Tendulkar’s record by becoming the first batter to score 1,000 or more runs in eight calendar years, he missed out on equalling his tally of ODI centuries. Kohli was dismissed by Sri Lanka's left-arm pacer Dilshan Madushanka in the 32nd over.
Kohli broke a few other records as well. He also became India’s leading run-scorer in World Cup 2023 with 442 runs from seven innings at an average of 88.40 including one century and four fifties.
Earlier in the day, Kohli was seen practising his bowling before the coin toss. Jasprit Bumrah had his fun as an umpire as he adjudged one of his deliveries he bowled as a wide.
However, Kohli did roll his arm earlier in the World Cup. He completed Hardik Pandya’s over after he injured his ankle and had to leave the field against Bangladesh. He bowled three deliveries and did not concede a single boundary. So far, Kohli has four ODI wickets to his name after bowling 644 balls in career.
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