Records tumble as India mercilessly demolish Sri Lanka in Cricket World Cup match

Large number of records made and broken in India’s brutal drubbing of Sri Lanka

Mohammed Shami became India’s leading wicket taker in World Cups after claiming 5-18 (REUTERS)

A series of records were made and broken during an ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 match in which India brutally thrashed Sri Lanka.

India, led by Rohit Sharma, demolished Sri Lanka by 302 runs during the match on Thursday in Mumbai and became the first side to reach the World Cup semi-final.

The result at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium was India’s biggest margin of victory by runs ever at a Cricket World Cup. Overall, this was the second-largest win by runs in the coveted tournament after Australia’s 309-run victory over Netherlands a week ago.

There have only been three other instances of a bigger margin of win by runs in the history of the Men’s One-Day Internationals (ODIs). All of them have happened this year.

They included India’s record 317-run hammering of Sri Lanka in January, Zimbabwe’s 304-run victory over the US in June and Australia’s 309-run win over Netherlands earlier in the tournament.

Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah began the carnage against Sri Lanka by dismissing the side’s two opening batters for a first-ball duck.

Bumrah removed Pathum Nissanka on the first ball of the innings, becoming the first Indian bowler to take a wicket on the very first ball of a team innings during a Cricket World Cup match.

Siraj dismissed Dimuth Karunaratne on the first delivery of the second over, leaving Sri Lanka at 2 for 2.

The bowler took two more wickets before Mohammed Shami took centre stage.

Shami then finished with a five-wicket haul while leaking just 18 runs in his five-over spell. With that, he has become India’s leading wicket-taker at Men’s Cricket World Cups with 45 wickets in just 14 matches at an eye-watering average of 12.91.

India’s previous record was shared between Zaheer Khan and Javagal Srinath who had 44 wickets each. However, it had taken them many more matches than Shami to get to their milestones. Khan had clinched 44 wickets in 23 games, while Srinath needed 34 matches to do so.

India’s star batter Virat Kohli has been one of the best performers in the ongoing World Cup. In seven matches, Kohli has 104 half-centuries and is currently the second leading scorer in the tournament with 442 runs, behind South Africa’s Quinton de Kock, who has 545 runs.

Kohli missed out on a record-equalling century on Thursday, but still had a historic outing.

His latest knock of 88 runs off 94 balls took his Cricket World Cup runs tally to 1,472 runs, helping him surpass Australia’s David Warner (1.405 runs) and reach the fourth place in the all-time list.

Only Sachin Tendulkar (2,278 runs), Ricky Ponting (1,743 runs) and Kumar Sangakkara (1,532 runs) have scored more than Kohli in their careers at the tournament.

The former India captain also brought up his 13th 50-plus score in Cricket World Cups, which is the second-most by a player across all editions of the tournament and only behind Tendulkar’s 21.

In 2023, Kohli averages the best in the ODIs as he has also breached the 1,000-run mark. The 34-year-old has scored 1,054 runs in 23 matches at an average of 65.87. He has scored 1,000-plus runs in ODIs in a calendar year eight times – the most by any player in the 50-over format’s history.

India still have two games to go before the knockout stage.

The Men in Blue have 14 points from seven matches and are firmly at the top of the World Cup 2023 points table. Their next fixture is on 5 November against South Africa at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens.