(Cricket news) On this day in 2014, Rohit Sharma smashed the record for the highest individual ODI score after he got an unbeaten 264 against Sri Lanka in the 4th ODI at the Eden Gardens. No one since has gotten anywhere close to breaking or matching the Hitman's record.
In Sri Lanka's tour of India in 2014, India were leading by 3-0. Captain Virat Kohli elected to bat first after winning the toss. India were hoping to whitewash Sri Lanka while Sri Lanka were just hoping to get a consolation. Rohit Sharma was returning to the international stage after missing 3 months due to a finger injury.
Sharma, opened the batting and struggled to time the ball early on as his half century came after 72 balls but then slowly got into the groove. He went on to score 264 runs, which was his 2nd double hundred in ODI cricket after his 209 against Australia. His innings consisted of 9 sixes and 33 boundaries. He had 202 run partnership for the 3rd wicket captain, Virat Kohli, and a 128 run stand with Robin Uthappa, in which Uthappa scored only 16 runs.
India went on to post 404 runs on the board. Sri Lanka in reply could only manage 251, which was 13 runs short of what Rohit Sharma managed. Talking about innings the opener said "I was very nervous because it was my first match after the finger injury so I took my time at the start. As I hit a few boundaries then I got some confidence and kept on playing my game. The most surprising thing I realised later is that I hit 33 boundaries because the entire team rarely hits 33 fours. But even after that our coach Duncan Fletcher said that I could've scored 300 if I hadn't played slowly at the start which I found very funny at the time"
Sharma has since scored another double century against Sri Lanka in 2017 at Mohali. Now at the age of 34 he is an integral part of the Indian side in all 3 formats. Recently he has also been named the captain of the Indian T20 side.
