Kohli makes Sri Lanka pay for dropped chances with 45th ODI ton

Making full use of two dropped chances Virat Kohli smashed his 45th ODI hundred that propelled India to an imposing 373 for seven against Sri Lanka in the seriesopener here on TuesdayKohli who scored 113 against Bangladesh in Chattogram in Indias last ODI continued from where he left to play the sheet anchor role with his 87ball 113The class of Kohli was on full display as he smashed 12 fours and one six and held on to one end while wickets fell at regular intervals in the middle oversAt a venue where he had scored a century 140 vs West Indies in the only ODI held here four years back the former India skipper had luck by his sideHe was dropped twice on 52 and 81 en route to his 45th ODI century four shy of maestro Sachin Tendulkars alltime record of 49 centuries in the 50over formatOverall Kohli has now 73rd International centuries To go with his 45 ODI hundreds he has 27 in Test format and one in T20ISkipper Rohit Sharma responded to the criticism of benching the inform duo of Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav by giving India a solid start in company of Shubman GillThe Indian skipper had preferred Gill over Ishan who had to sit out despite a recordbreaking 210 in Indias last onedayerRohit slammed a 67ball 83 9x4 3x6 in a knock of sheer dominationAlso readNo Ishan Kishan SKYs not blue tooOn a flat deck Rohit was at ease to step out to the Lankan pacers pulling them with nonchalance en route to a 41ball fiftyGill was also at his fluent best and complemented his skipper keeping his flair and elegance intactContinuing his dream run in ODIs Gill brought up his fifth halfcentury that came off 51 ballsIt was a oneway traffic for the Indian opening duo before Dasun Shanaka dismissed Gill The youngster was guilty of playing across the line and wad trapped in front of the wicketLooking to bring an end to his century drought Rohit too perished in addition of 30 runs to the total He was cleaned up by debutant Dilshan MadushankaRunrate slowed down and it was a welcome respite for Sri Lanka who till then were staring at a 400plus targetThe home team slowly gained the lost momentum with Kohli and Shreyas Iyer 28 taking charge of the middleoversHaving got the nod ahead of Suryakumar Yadav Iyer looked fluent and hit Wanindu Hasaranga for a six But he failed to convert his startUnderfire KL Rahul 39 also could not make it big and was bowled around the legs after being deceived by a slower one from Kasun RajithaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever