Individual brilliance has defined the One-day Internationals since the early nineties, when the 50-over game took a life of its own. With the ceiling of runs going higher and higher over the past decade, stars on top of the charts have kept rotating far too frequently.
With an unprecedented third ODI double ton, Rohit Sharma on Wednesday, once again under-pinned his billing as among the best players of the format.
He scored a swashbuckling unbeaten 208 off just 153 deliveries, smashing 13 boundaries and 12 sixes during his stay at in the middle. The effort helped India post a mammoth 392/4 before the bowlers restricted Sri Lanka to 251/8 in Mohali.
The right-hander had previously scored 209 against Australia in Bangalore in 2013, and followed that double-hundred with his highest score of 264 against Sri Lanka a year later in Kolkata.
Speaking after the game, Rohit insisted that despite the frequency of his double tons, there was no formula for scoring 200-plus runs in an ODI. He added that unlike some of his peers, power-hitting was not his forte and he relies more on his ability to analyse field placements, which makes scoring the big runs a challenging aspect for a batsman like him.
“There is no formula to it,” said Rohit. “The pitch was nice and hard and you could hit on the up. All the double hundreds I got were similar in pattern. I started off very slow and then picked up the pace, at the end I accelerated.”
“I like to analyse situations and conditions which were initially not easy. I wanted to play out the overs. I am not someone like AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle or MS Dhoni. I don’t have that much power. I have to use my brain to manipulate the field, and stick to my strength which is to hit through the lines,” he added.
Rohit said cricket is a difficult sport to master and stressed on the importance of shot selection. “Nothing is easy in cricket,” he said. “Maybe when you watch it on TV it looks easy. But it is not. You have to use your brain and time the ball. Trying to scoop the ball and hit over point is my strength. You can’t clear the rope always that easily. You can exploit the five fielders inside and play around with the field. Shot selection becomes very important,” he added.
Breaking down his knock on Wednesday, Rohit said that he went about the innings, as he done the previous two times when he also ended up surpassing the 200-run mark. “The first 100 took a little longer,” Rohit said. “The second hundred did not take that long because I was set. You understood what the bowlers were trying to do by then. It was all about playing according to the field. Once you get past 100, it is all about not making a mistake and batting as long as possible. After I scored 100, I just wanted to bat to my strength,” he added.
Prior to Wednesday’s heroics, Rohit had produced an impressive show during the just-concluded Test series against the Lankans. His rich vein of form will raise expectations when the team heads to South Africa. For now, though, Rohit is focused on his task of leading India to a series win over Sri Lanka.
“I have not had a good time in South Africa, but I am quite determined to change that,” said Rohit. “I, however, do not want to think too far ahead. I will have to make a few technical changes. I will think about South Africa after December 24.”
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