Kohli, Bhuvneshwar secure historic 5-0 sweep against Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka - 238 (Thirimanne 67, Mathews 55, Bhuvneshwar 5-42)
India - 239 for 4 (Kohli 110*, Jadhav 63)
Result - India won by six wickets

Colombo: India comfortably beat Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in the fifth ODI at R.Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Sunday to clinch historic clean sweep in five match series. India become the first team to whitewash the Lankans in Sri Lanka.

However boring it was, the moment was historic, as Kohli equalled Ricky Ponting’s tally of hundreds (30) and is only behind the great Sachin Tendulkar (49).

Well, this was not only Kohli’s day out. His former captain MS Dhoni pouched his 100th stumping, the most by any player in ODI cricket.

In other news, India became the first team to whitewash Sri Lanka in their own, as they won the fifth and final ODI by 6 wickets. It was yet another victory for the hosts, chasing down 239 in 46.3 overs.

Jasprit Bumrah declared player of the series while his partner Bhuvneshwar was the man of the match.

This was Kohli’s second ton in the series; consecutive and also Kohli’s 18th international hundred as captain; level with Mahela Jayawardene (18). Kohli now has 10 centuries in Test cricket and 8 in ODIs as skipper.

Kohli is also the first to have a hat-trick of ODI hundreds at Colombo. This is also Kohli’s eighth ton against Sri Lanka; 4th in Sri Lanka. This is Kohli’s 19th hundred while chasing and 26th in a day-night ODI.

He also became the first player to complete 1,000 ODI runs in 2017.

Earlier, Bhuvneshwar grabbed his maiden five-wicket haul as an unrelenting India restricted Sri Lanka to a modest 238.

Kumar, 27, made the most of the conditions, taking 5-42 after Sri Lankan captain Upul Tharanga won the toss and elected to bat under an overcast sky.

Kumar reduced Sri Lanka to 63-3 before Lahiru Thirimanne (67) and Angelo Mathews stitched together a 122-run stand for the fourth wicket to steady the innings.

But Mathews gave an easy catch to wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni off spinner Kuldeep Yadav (1-40) after making 55 off 98 deliveries.

Thirimanne hit three fours and a six in his 102-ball knock.

Tharanga, who missed the previous game due to injury, chipped in with a valuable 48.

Dhoni passed a career milestone when he stumped Akila Dananjaya (four) off the bowling of leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, his 100th in ODIs.

Dhoni became the first to achieve the feat, surpassing former Sri Lankan wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara who had 99 stumpings to his credit.

In all, the last five wickets fell for just 44 as steady partnerships eluded Sri Lanka following the dismissal of Thirimanne and Mathews.