India advanced to the semifinals after registering their biggest win in the history of the ODI World Cup as they mauled Sri Lanka by 302 runs at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday, November 2. The Men in Blue couldn't have pulled off a more clinical performance to cement their semifinal berth as they outclassed the Lankan Lions in all three departments.
The Kusal Mendis-led side experienced a nightmarish outing with the willow in hand after they were asked to achieve a mammoth target of 358 runs in 50 overs. The match reminded everyone of the recently contested Asia Cup final where the Sri Lankan team was ripped to shreds by the steam of Mohammed Siraj. Siraj came back to haunt Sri Lanka again as he dismantled their top order by dismissing Dimuth Karunaratne, Mendis and Sadeera Samarawickrama.
It turned out to be an exceptional effort from the Indian seamers as Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami also bowled probing deliveries to leave the Sri Lankan batters dumbfounded. Sri Lanka's misery eventually came to an end in the 20th over as they got bowled out for 55 runs.
Earlier in the day, India was asked to set a total on the board after the Sri Lanka skipper won the toss and chose to field - a decision that he might regret. India were pegged back early as Dilshan Madushanka bowled a well-disguised slower one to dismiss Rohit Sharma on the second ball of the match.
However, the pair of Shubman Gill (92 off 92 balls) and Virat Kohli (88 off 94 deliveries) stabilised India's batting order after the early hiccup and closed the door on Sri Lanka's face. Shubman finally showed glimpses of form in the tournament after enduring a string of decent outings. He was tentative early on but pressed the accelerator after getting his eye in.
Virat, on the other hand, laid the foundation of India's innings and constructed his knock in his trademark fashion - running hard between the wickets and putting the Sri Lankan bowlers away whenever they erred in terms of their line and length. He was looking on course to scoring his 49th ODI ton and drawing level with Sachin Tendulkar before Madushanka bowled another terrific slower one to prolong his wait.
Virat's dismissal came in the 32nd over and the 1996 World Cup winners gave themselves a chance to make a comeback in the game as they also got the better of KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav soon to end India's hopes of scoring in excess of 400.
But Shreyas Iyer (82 off 56 balls) played a fearless knock and was bolstered by Ravindra Jadeja (35 off 24 balls) as the duo combined together to take India to 357.
