India Cricket

Umesh Yadav stood at the top of his mark, ready to commence his second over and the fourth of the game. In his previous over, he'd claimed the prized scalp of David Warner for nought. Australia were one down without a run on the board.

India had arrived in Melbourne's colossal venue and landed the first blow. A big one. Australia, without Michael Clarke and playing a debutant at six, were under pressure. All India needed from Yadav's over was more of the same. 

But this is ESPNCricinfo.com's ball-by-ball text commentary of what happened next:

Here's Umesh. Watson on strike

3.1

Yadav to Watson, 1 bye, he is welcomed with a short ball that Dhoni is not able to take cleanly. It bursts through his hands. Allows Australia to get a move on

3.2

Yadav to Rogers, no run, back of length on the stumps, the batsman looks to clip it to the leg side but gets a leading edge down the pitch

3.3

Yadav to Rogers, 2 runs, fuller length delivery, it's pushed through midwicket where KL Rahul slides but is not able to come behind the ball... gives away an extra run.

3.4

Yadav to Rogers, 2 runs, now another misfield at point. This is Shami now. It hits his boots and ricochets away from him

Such a sequence may, to some, seem minor and inconsequential. But it wasn't. Not at all. It was diabolical, even if most watching wouldn't have given those four balls two seconds of extra thought. 

MS Dhoni couldn't get it right with the gloves. Lokesh Rahul couldn't get it right with his legs. And Mohammed Shami, well, he couldn't get it right with anything. In the space of four balls, the captain grassed a straightforward take, the debutant misjudged a slide by two metres and the seamer fell on his backside trying to stop a routine ball at point. 

So much for more of the same. India suddenly looked disheveled. And a 115-run partnership followed.

Just over 12 months ago, George Dobell of ESPN Cricinfo, after observing England serve up a horrible exhibition of fielding in Adelaide, wrote that "fielding is the window to the soul of a team." It was a pertinent remark. 

For cricket, despite being a team sport, is largely defined by individual pursuits. There's very little you do as a collective. Fielding is the only team-oriented discipline in the game.

Individuals form their reputations with the bat and ball; team's form their identity in the field. 

As such, India's work around the vast expanses of the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday neatly encapsulated this team's puzzling identity. In the Test arena, Dhoni's men are neither here nor there. They've got so many qualities, an abundance of skill and plenty of flair, but there's just as much that is missing.

They squander opportunities. Their focus comes and goes. Their attention to detail, to the little things, is poor. Their successes and failures are pinned solely to talent, not fundamentals.  

There they were, having heaped pressure on Australia through a fine piece of individual skill, releasing the pressure because of an inability to do the basics as a team. And it continued after Yadav's over.

Shikhar Dhawan dropped a chance he should have swallowed at slip.

Ishant Sharma almost conceded a boundary off his knee.

Virat Kohli, normally sharp in the field, was diving over balls, running past them and looking generally sloppy. 

It was India's identity in a nutshell: supremely talented but supremely flawed. 

Interestingly, when Dhoni was quizzed on his team's performances this week after surrendering a 2-0 lead to Australia, he was quick to point out his team's inability to seize upon brief moments. 

"I feel we are playing good cricket ... but there's been spaces where we have not played good cricket," he said, per ABC News. "What we have spoken about is those half-an-hour, 45-minute moments."

But three misfields in four balls didn't occur over 45 minutes. Nor half an hour. India lose games in minutes and split seconds. And it's their fielding that's reflective of that identity. 

The second Test between Australia and India looked evenly poised going into the fourth day. By the end of it, the match was over.

The tourists had reached stumps on Friday in Brisbane on 71-1 in their second innings, leaving them trailing by 26 runs but with plenty of wickets in hand. It seemed they could yet set Australia a tricky final-innings target.

By lunch, however, any hopes they might have harboured of becoming the first touring team to win a Test at the Gabba since 1988 had quickly collapsed, just like their batting lineup.

Things had actually started to unravel for India even before a ball had been bowled on Saturday.

Opener Shikhar Dhawan had been due to resume on 26 not out, but a hand injury suffered during morning practice had left him unable to bat at the start of play.

India blamed the blow suffered by their opener on a poor practice pitch—they issued a statement, per their official website, to say they had requested a fresh strip but were instructed to use a worn one instead.

In his post-match interview, visiting captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, per Sidharth Monga at ESPN Cricinfo, admitted the situation had "created a bit of unrest in the dressing room" before proceedings got underway. There was unrest when play began, too, as players hastily had to prepare to bat due to the carnage going on in the middle.

They slipped to 157-7 by lunch; opener Dhawan did not get much time to rest his hurting hand, going back out to bat at the fall of the sixth wicket.

The left-hander went on to make a top score of 81, but India's final total of 224 left Australia needing just 128 to double their lead in the four-Test series.

Steve Smith's side managed to reach their target, albeit for the loss of six wickets as India fought hard to the end. It is a shame their batsmen did not show the same kind of fighting qualities earlier in the day.

The bowlers, though, are not completely blameless in the aftermath of a fifth straight Test loss overseas.

Having made 408 after opting to bat first, India had their opponents 232-5 in reply before letting them off the hook. A potential handy first-innings lead disappeared, as home skipper Smith and Australia's lower order lifted their final score to 505.

The 97-run advantage proved crucial in the final reckoning.

Australia's last four wickets added 258 runs, Mitchell Johnson smashing 88 of them to get his tail up having been a peripheral figure in the series until then. He took 4-61 in the second innings, including removing the pivotal Virat Kohli, pushed in to bat earlier than expected due to Dhawan's injury, for a single.

The honourable defeat in Adelaide in the first Test, when all three results were possible going into the final session, and the first three days in Brisbane have shown India can compete on their travels.

But a Test, as we know, lasts for a full five days. It is no good working hard to stay afloat for the majority of them if one bad session suddenly sinks your hopes of success.

India must cut out the collapses with the bat and the lapses with the ball if they are to break their losing streak abroad in Melbourne and keep the series alive.

Virat Kohli edging English seamers and walking back to the pavilion with a disappointing score to his name was a familiar trope from the English summer, but Kohli left all that behind him with a splendid century in Adelaide earlier today.

It should perhaps come as no surprise that Kohli rediscovered his touch in Test cricket in Australia at the Adelaide Oval.

After a difficult start in the country, he is developing a fine understanding of how to thrive in Australian conditions. Over the course of five Tests and eight ODIs, he has found something of a home from home Down Under.

It was in Adelaide in 2012 that he scored his maiden Test hundred at the 14th time of asking in his eighth Test. Moreover, his performances throughout that tour can be seen as truly marking his arrival as a player of substance on the international scene in both the Test and one-day arenas.

Nagraj Gollapudi summarised the importance of his first Australia tour following a promising World Cup showing in a profile of Kohli for ESPN Cricinfo:

Then came the tour to Australia later that year, when he truly proved he belonged at the highest levels in both forms of the game. On a tour in which India's senior batsmen struggled throughout, Kohli stood out, scoring India's only Test hundred—a mature, composed innings in Adelaide. And with India almost out of the CB Series, Kohli uncorked his best with an astonishing 86-ball unbeaten 133 to help India chase down 321 in under 40 overs.

Though he is still in the first phase of what promises to be a long Test career, in the 17 Tests Kohli has played in foreign climes, none of which have been in Asia, his record is a fairly black and white tale of success or failure depending on which hemisphere he finds himself in.

In the northern hemisphere against England and the West Indies, his record has been woeful. Kohli averages 15.2 across three Tests in the Caribbean, and his record in England is even worse over five Tests, where he averages 13.4. As a tourist, he is yet to pass 50 in a Test against either nation after 15 innings.

Against New Zealand, Kohli averaged 71.33 over two Tests earlier this year, boosted by a fine unbeaten hundred in Wellington. He also excelled in South Africa, averaging 68 in the two Test series last December after making 119 and 96 in his two innings at the New Wanderers in Johannesburg.

In Australia, Kohli has played five Tests, with four coming in 2011-12 prior to the Test currently being played, providing a better measure of sustained success in a country in much the same way that his struggles in England over a five Test series is a fair reflection of his failure to cope with conditions there.

After being dismissed cheaply in his first Test on Australian soil at Melbourne for 11 and 0 by Ben Hilfenhaus, and then making only 32 from his two innings in the following Test at Sydney, doubts may have surfaced around his ability to prosper there.

However, as Gollapudi alluded too, he was far from alone in struggling for runs. His more senior middle order colleagues Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman managed just four half centuries between them over the course of 12 combined innings as India slid to two comprehensive defeats.

Kohli adjusted better than anyone to the quick, bouncy track at the WACA in Perth, top-scoring in each innings with 44 from a total of 161 and then 75 from 171 as India crashed to another innings defeat.

At Adelaide, Kohli came of age and stood tall when all others floundered. After Australia compiled a mammoth 604 with double-hundreds from Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke, Kohli was last man out as India crumbled to 272 all out.

He had made 116 when then next best effort from an Indian batsman was 35 and walked off to a standing ovation from an impressed home crowd. Almost two years later, Kohli had the Adelaide crowd on their feet again.

Captaining the Test team for the first time in the absence of MS Dhoni, Kohli responded superbly to the responsibility with an excellent innings, pushing on to a ton after watching three of his team-mates fall after making half-centuries for scores of 53, 62 and 73.

Virat Kohli now the third Indian make a century in debut innings as Test captain after Vijay Hazare (1951) & Sunil Gavaskar (1976) #AusvInd

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) December 11, 2014

Kohli appears to relish quicker pitches like those more common in Australia and South Africa, where the ball comes on to the bat rather than those in England where it moves away from it. He seems to thrive against the sort of belligerent fast-bowling dished up by the likes of Dale Steyn and Mitchell Johnson.

This is further evidenced in his one-day record, where his average of 53.28 over the course of eight ODIs in Australia is superior to even his highly impressive career average of 52.61, the fifth highest in the history of ODI cricket, according to ESPN Cricinfo.

Even in the ODI format, where he has truly excelled to become the No. 2 ranked batsman in the world, as per the ICC, his record in England and the West Indies, noted on ESPN Cricinfo, lets him down, further painting a picture of Kohli as a man who favours certain conditions.

In England, he has made a century and two fifties, but his average of 38.54 over 14 matches is meagre by his own lofty standards. In the West Indies, he has also made one hundred and two half-centuries but averages fewer runs over the course of 10 innings with 34.7.

Both the pitches and the bowling that greet him in Australia seem to suit his instinctive, aggressive approach to batting that has been praised by the great Viv Richards, as reported by ESPN Cricinfo:

I love watching Virat Kohli bat. He looks to me like an individual of my own heart. I love his aggression, and [he has] serious passion that I used to have. He reminds me of myself. He is an individual who doesn't back off from confrontation; someone who can stand his ground under pressure. I love that as you can't teach these instinctive aspects.

His centuries at Adelaide have not been especially attacking innings, coming at strike rates of 54.46 in 2012 and 62.5 in the current Test, but he still appears more comfortable against out-and-out pace attacks than bowlers who primarily look to swing the ball away from him.

His struggles in England were largely against James Anderson, a supreme exponent of swing in conditions ideally suited to such bowling.

Four times Kohli was dismissed edging Anderson behind, and five of his other six dismissals came against England's seamers. Moeen Ali took 19 wickets with his spin but only claimed Kohli's wicket once.

In the West Indies, it was Fidel Edwards, another bowler skilled at swinging the ball, who had Kohli's number, removing him three times with out-swingers claiming the edge as Kohli failed to pass 30 in his five innings on tour.

For Kohli to fully establish himself as one of the world's best Test batsmen over a long career and to reach the upper echelons of the ICC player rankings currently occupied by the likes of Kumar Sangakkara, AB de Villiers and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, he must find a way of coping with quality swing bowling in conditions that are not ideally suited to his style.

In the meantime, there is perhaps nowhere outside of his native India where Kohli would feel more comfortable captaining India for the first time in a Test than the middle of the Adelaide Oval.

With his increasing appreciation of Australian conditions in the longer and shorter formats and his authoritative handling of the sort of bowling that gives English batsmen nightmares, it will be no surprise to see Kohli plundering many more runs as India's tour of Australia continues. 

The quality of the opposition may not have been the strongest but India got a much-needed workout prior to the first Test against Australia on Tuesday.

The visitors scored 375 in reply to the Cricket Australia XI's first innings total of 243. They then reduced the inexperienced hosts to 83 for five as the two-day match ended in a draw.

Most of the top-order batsmen enjoyed decent times in the middle and the bowlers got some overs in their legs.

Read on to find out who impressed, who disappointed and how it could affect selection for the first Test in Adelaide.

Batsmen Impress

 In light of the tragic death of Phillip Hughes, preparations for both Australia and India prior to the first Test have been severely truncated.

Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane made the most of their opportunity against a talented but inexperienced Cricket Australia XI attack. After being given a life early on, both Vijay and Kohli cruised passed fifty before retiring.

Ajinkya Rahane followed suit with an unbeaten 56 from just 64 deliveries.

All three looked in good order ahead of the Adelaide opener.

The same can't be said for Shikhar Dhawan though. The 29-year-old's recent Test record is sketchy and he didn't boost his chances of a recall to the five-day team after a first-ball duck at the Gilderol Stadium.

Despite his spectacular recent form in the ODI game (his past three scores are 113, 79 and 91) it seems unlikely that the streaky left-hander will be trusted to open when the Test series begins.

Arguably the best batting of the match came from wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha whose 51 included eight fours.

MS Dhoni is set to rejoin the Indian touring party on Friday but remains a doubt for the first Test after suffering a hairline fracture to his right thumb.

If the skipper does miss out in Adelaide, Saha will make an excellent replacement.

Varun Aaron Stakes Test Claim

Varun Aaron has been touted by former Australian great Dean Jones in the Sydney Morning Herald as India's most dangerous player.

He enhanced that top billing by picking up four for 41 in the first innings then one for 28 in the second.

India have struggled for bowling firepower on recent overseas trips. While he may not have the menace of a Mitchell Johnson, Aaron is slippery enough to trouble top batsmen.

It looks like he's worked his way into contention for the first Test.

The rest of the attack also got a decent workout with everyone who turned their arm over picking up a wicket. After a fruitless first innings, Ishant Sharma got amongst the action in the second with a couple of cheap dismissals.

Ishant is fired up. Welcomes Alex Keath with two sharp bouncers and next over, gets him to edge one to Saha. CA XI 80 for 4.

— BCCI (@BCCI) December 5, 2014

Karn Sharma impressed with his leg-spinners too, picking up four wickets in the match. Whether he'll be trusted ahead of Ravichandran Ashwin remains to be seen.

Will India be Undercooked?

Given the truncated build-up, it's perhaps understandable that India opted to field as many players as they could in this match. Fourteen of the squad batted or bowled for the tourists during the two-day encounter.

Coach Duncan Fletcher has always preferred his players to be slightly underdone but fresh, rather than overprepared and tired. This year's Indians will definitely fall into the former camp.

Matches involving more than 11 players aren't always the best way to get in shape for a Test series in Australia, as England can attest.

Recent tragic events have affected preparations for everyone. There's still a chance that the Indians will be undercooked when the Test series opens next week.

The build-up to the series opener may not have been ideal for the tourists but there were signs that they could spring a surprise Down Under this time.

In the wake of Thursday's announcement from the Board of Control for Cricket in India regarding the nation's provisional 30-man squad to tour Australia and New Zealand for the 2015 Cricket World Cup, it makes for interesting reading to run your eye over the XI that captured the world title for India in 2011. 

On April 2 of that year in Mumbai, India's side for the country's historic clash with Sri Lanka read: Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel and S Sreesanth. 

As they prepare to defend their crown nearly four years on, only three of those men will be present. Of course, retirement and a life ban account for Tendulkar and Sreesanth respectively, but the other six have simply been discarded. 

In fact, in the entire 30-man provisional squad announced on Thursday, only four took part in India's charge to the 2011 title on home soil. 

The most notable of the exclusions are those of Sehwag, Yuvraj, Gambhir, Harbhajan and Zaheer. Decorated figures in Indian cricket they are, but the BCCI has clearly unshackled itself from the sentimentalism that once plagued its selection process. 

"Seniors were also considered [for selection]. There was a discussion on everyone," said BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel on the announcement, per ESPN Cricinfo.

"But the thought process was to give preference to performers. The youngsters have been doing very well at the domestic level so they could not be ignored. Barring major injuries, the World Cup squad would be from this lot. Captain's views were also considered."

Perhaps more than anything, the board's progressive mentality and push for youth is indicative of how quickly the modern limited-overs formats are evolving.

Never has the game been as frenetic as it is now; never before has it placed the premium on athleticism and vitality that it currently does.  

In modern cricket—and in sport more generally—there's no time to look back. And never has that been more true for international sides than during the lead up to the 2015 World Cup. 

"I would not like to comment at this [whether it is the end for Sehwag and Yuvraj in international cricket] level as I mentioned earlier," Patel said, when questioned on the futures of India's discarded stars. 

"I think all of us should be happy that a lot of young cricketers have been considered for this, as a part of the probables. I feel that considering the future after the World Cup is also part of the thought process."

Frankly, such foresight has too often been missing from India. 

Its presence is a refreshing change. 

Importantly, India's defence of their World Cup title now feels full of conviction; the announcement is an injection of confidence and faith in the emerging group who've impressively maintained the country's position at the pinnacle of one-day cricket despite the navigation of a transitional period. 

Indeed, instead of turning to former sources of strength at a critical juncture, the BCCI's forward-thinking selections will have buoyed those on the fringe of the Indian 50-over side—a critical component in constructing a deep and resourceful squad for an international tournament. 

And looking at the composition of the provisional group, India should be able to put together exactly that. 

So while the whereabouts of this World Cup and the conditions expected had meant India were never going to be among the teams most suited to the tournament, by not looking back, they've ensured they'll arrive among the best prepared. 

India have omitted five major names from their preliminary squad list of 30 probable players for the 2015 Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and Gautam Gambhir have all been left out of the squad, per NDTV Sports. That means only four players remain from India's triumphant 2011 group, per ESPNcricinfo:

Each one of the omitted quintet were part of the team that beat Sri Lanka by six wickets to claim one-day cricket's biggest prize in Mumbai four years ago.

However, India's cricketing governing body (BCCI) has arguably quite rightly decided to go with youth ahead of past heroes.

Yuvraj was the last of the five omitted stars to appear for India in an ODI, and that was back in December 2013.

The BCCI provides the full list of probables via its Twitter feed:

Along with Australia and South Africa, India are one of the favourites to win the tournament Down Under, which gets underway on Feb. 14.

They have been drawn in Pool B along with the Proteas, Pakistan, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Ireland and the UAE.

You knew from his delectable flick off the pads from a ball hitting middle-and-off bowled by Shaminda Eranga that Virat Kohli was in the mood.

It came in the 10th over of India's chase of 287 on a slow, low, dry and dusty surface at Ranchi, when the home team were reeling at 29-for-2, having lost both their openers cheap.

A couple of overs later, Kohli played another gorgeous stroke off the same bowler. It was a mere gentle push through the covers, but one placed and timed with such brilliance that deep cover stood no chance of stopping the ball's journey to the fence.

Then, in the 19th over of the game, bowled by off-spinner Ajantha Mendis, the 26-year-old Indian heartthrob delivered his signature cover drive to bring up his half-century, his wrist movement so supple and the follow-through so elegant that the cameramen had an early Christmas.

Up until this last game of the five-match series against Sri Lanka, Kohli, the fastest batsman in the world to 6,000 ODI runs, had played a supporting role.

Before Sunday's match, four of his teammates had scored centuries in the series—Rohit Sharma had even broken the world record for the highest individual score in an ODI. But Kohli, India's stand-in captain for the injured MS Dhoni, had been happy to watch his young team flourish.

His scores in the four matches prior to Sunday read 22, 49, 53 and 66. He had been overshadowed by his colleagues, but it was evident that he was building up towards something special.

Finally, it arrived when his team most needed it. Chasing a steep total considering the nature of the pitch, Kohli and reliable No. 3 Ambati Rayudu (59) weathered the early storm when India lost their openers within the first five overs.

At 150-for-2, he gaffed at the halfway stage of the innings when his indecision in taking a quick single cost his partner his wicket.

From there, he helplessly watched from the other end as the next four capable batsmen in the team departed—a couple of them inexplicably throwing their wickets away—to leave India at 231-for-7 with less than seven overs to go.

Somewhere in between, he got to his 21st ODI century, which is no ordinary tally when you consider the number of games he has played. Kohli, at age 26 and after just 146 matches, ranks fifth in the all-time list.

The names above him are Sachin Tendulkar (49), Ricky Ponting (30), Sanath Jayasuriya (28) and Sourav Ganguly (22), all of whom have long retired.

To put matters further into perspective, the person directly above him, Ganguly, took more than double the number of matches to get to his 22, while Jayasuriya took almost triple the number of games for his 28. Chris Gayle and Herschelle Gibbs, who also have 21 hundreds to their name, have taken at least 102 more innings than Kohli to get there.

However, in spite of India already having taken the series 4-0 coming into the final ODI, those numbers would have mattered little to him had India lost. But there was scant chance of that happening when Kohli was there.

Prior to this game, out of his 20 centuries, 13 had come in run chases, out of which 12 had resulted in a win for India. With those odds, there was only one result possible.

With some helpful resistance from No. 9 Axar Patel, Kohli got the equation down to 13 required off 12 balls after some lusty hitting, which included his nutmegging Mendis for a boundary.

The mystery spinner, who had taken four wickets in the match, was handed the task of bowling the penultimate over. Wrong move, as Kohli attempted the helicopter shot, almost got it right and sent the ball sailing over long on to ensure that Ranchi wasn't missing its home boy, Dhoni.

Two singles later, he beat Sri Lanka with a mighty heave over long on for six. It may not have been the World Cup final, but it sure had sent a clear message to the Indian camp.

Kohli, who has captained India's under-19 team to a World Cup triumph, has been Dhoni's understudy for a while now. With his stellar one-day form, he seems ready to take over the reins in the shorter formats even today.

There would not have been any doubts about his captaincy credentials in Test matches had it not been for an abysmal tour of England this summer, when he failed to record a single half-century in 10 innings.

The upcoming tour of Australia will be a huge one for Kohli's career. Only if he rediscovers his form in all-whites in an environment as hostile as Australia will the Indian team management be confident enough to hand over the baton.

Another flop show would certainly cast doubt as to whether he is still ready, and with no one else worthy of the armband, India could leave Australia with grave concerns about the future as Dhoni nears the end of his career.

India have never really tried the multi-captain format employed successfully by teams such as Australia and South Africa. If they want to stick to the traditional way, Kohli will have to step up Down Under.

Rohit Sharma made history in the fourth one-day international between India and Sri Lanka when he became the first player in cricket history to score 200 or more twice in ODIs, then setting the highest score of all time by an astonishing 45 runs. 

The Indian right-hander piled on 264 runs from 173 balls at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, with a dazzling array of strokes, power and placement.

Rohit Sharma breaks the ODI top score record! Previous mark 219 from Virender Sehwag. Still going. #IndvsSL #Rohit pic.twitter.com/9rvHl9Mx3w

— Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) November 13, 2014

Little over 12 months ago, he managed 209 from 158 balls against Australia.

Only three players have ever reached 200—Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar the others—and only Rohit has managed the feat twice.

Rohit Sharma breaks the ODI World record! https://t.co/mKyOi9fFUG

— Amit Dattani (@dattaniamit) November 13, 2014

His acceleration stood out, crunching boundaries left, right and centre once he'd settled in to his innings.

Rohit from 79 (91) to 192 (148): 4,0,6,4,4,0,1,1,1,0,6,4,0,1,4,1,0,1,4,4,0,6,4,0,1,1,1,1,1,4,1,0,1,1,1,6,1,0,1,0,2,1,0,0,6,1,1,4,4,4,1,4,1

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) November 13, 2014

Rohit Sharma has 250 now. 0 to 50 - 72 balls 51 to 250 - 94 balls. Super Fabulous Stuff. #IndvSL

— Jila Watan (@Cric_Pak) November 13, 2014

His regular captain, MS Dhoni, injured and sitting out the match, was straight on Twitter to praise the knock:

Very well batted Rohit.thats Rohit for everyone,sheer talent.Enjoy and Witness the class in action.

— Mahendra Singh Dhoni (@msdhoni) November 13, 2014

By the end of the knock, as he swatted one record after another, the stats defied logic. In partnership with Robin Uthappa, he raised a century stand in 48 balls. Uthappa managed just 12 of those runs. By that point, the shots had gone from convention to all-conquering, this flick over long on from well outside the line just one further example of his prowess:

Whattey a SHOT ! #Hitman Rohit Sharma https://t.co/tXq1iaHobS

— M J (@Jai_Shankarr) November 13, 2014

His 250 came from his 166th delivery, a quite astonishing return.

With 10 balls in the innings remaining, there was still time to top up the score, ending on 264 as the Sri Lankans deflatedly finished their innings.

Ali Brown's record 268, the highest score in List A domestic cricket, was to elude Sharma, as he was caught out from the last ball of the innings:

268 A. D. Brown .. Highest List A individual score.

— Ammar Ashraf (@AmmarAshraf) November 13, 2014

India finished on 404-5.

Rohit Sharma is out. 264 off 172 balls. What a surreal session of hitting that was! #IndvSL pic.twitter.com/CgzV9CAS7f

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) November 13, 2014

It was hard to remember that he had been dropped with just four runs to his name. 

Sachin Tendulkar has scored more Test runs than any other man in history; he also makes sure he gets more salad when he goes to Pizza Hut. 

The Indian legend's autobiography, Playing It My Way, is currently being serialised, and among all the tales of sporting valour comes advice on how to get more bang for your buck when you next visit "The Hut."

As per The Telegraph's Nick Hoult:

On just the third page of the book Sachin describes his mother as the 'best cook in the world for me' who would make him 'delicious fish and prawn curry, baigan bharta and varan bhaat (lentils and rice).' He says he owes his 'appetite and love of food' to her. He reveals how he dined in KFC and fish and chips while playing for Yorkshire and became an expert in how to maximise the salad bar in Pizza Hut. He writes he learned how to use 'lettuce leaves to construct a wall, so that the size of the bowl, which was normally just two to three inches tall, increased to five or six inches. We could then fill it with as much salad as we wanted.'

Extra salad, Howzat? Not too shabby, Mr. Tendulkar. 

It's just more proof that the "Little Master" is a little genius.

[The Telegraph]