Rohit Sharma century seals India win in ODI

Rohit Sharma hit his 2nd century in consecutive matches to safe a 7-wicket win over Sri Lanka in a tri-series.

Rohit Sharma's 1st century was against Zimbabwe on Friday in a match which the home side won by 6 wickets. But his winning "double" hundred here Sunday ensured victory against Sri Lanka.

Suresh Raina won the toss elected to bowling, Sri Lanka struggled against the inexperienced Indian bowlers to reach 242 all out in 49.5 overs. This target was all too easy for India and they passed it with 39 balls to spare.

"This was one of the best innings of my career because it is never easy to chase in one-day matches," said Sharma.

Sri Lankan skipper Tillekeratne Dilshan added: "The two early run-outs cost us a lot because we felt we wanted a score of at least 280 runs.

"The runs we did get were not enough for a good defence."

Now the rejuvenated Indians are back on track in the series and instead of being under pressure to survive they have the look of victors about them.

Man-of-the-match Sharma's 101 came up in exactly 100 balls. It was a race both against the light, which was generally indifferent, and also against the failing number of runs required for the win.

He didn't take all the limelight though. Virat Kohli weighed in with 82 before being caught on the boundary and they put on 154 for the third wicket. Kohli wanted 92 balls as he hit 4 fours in his 7th half century.

From a team standpoint India recovered well from their shock beating by Zimbabwe and are now back on track for a possible series winning effort.

The pressure now reverts to Sri Lanka who must beat Zimbabwe on Tuesday to put all three on level terms at the half-way stage.

Tri-Series: Zimbabwe beat India by 6 wickets

A maiden ODI century for India by Rohit Sharma was not sufficient to stop Zimbabwe from snatching a spectacular victory in the 1st one-day international of the tri-series.

Zimbabwe won at a dash with 10 balls and six wickets to spare in the first of two matches between them in a tri-series which also includes Sri Lanka.

Top six Zimbabwe batsmen, led by man-of-the-match Brendan Taylor, contributed drastically towards a surprise victory as they overtake an India total of 285-5 to record an impressive 289-4 in reply.

Indian skipper Suresh Raina, who had won the toss and opted to bat, praised the Zimbabwe batsmen but blamed the beat more on the inexperience of his team.

"Some of players have never played at this level," he explained. "However we should have been able to defend 285 runs."

Brendan Taylor's innings of 81 runs, cut short with a boundary catch when missing his 2nd ODI century, was backed up principally by Craig Ervine in his first ODI innings for Zimbabwe. He made 67 with Hamilton Masakadza contributing 46.

Rohit Sharma's century earlier in the day was a mix of prudence and boundary hunting as he gained confidence. He came in when India had lost three wickets for 61 and were momentarily on the back foot.

Their recovery from this, led by Rohit, came with a flurry of boundaries in later overs and 285 runs seemed likely to be sufficient to beat a home team with no great record in internationals.

But the Zimbabweans, who have done their Test cricket return aspirations a boost with this result, set about the task with inspiration and confidence.

Suresh Raina to lead India in Zimbabwe Tri-Series

Senior players were rested as India named a 2nd-string squad with Suresh Raina as the skipper and Virat Kohli his Vice-captain for the low-profile Zimbabwe tour starting 28th May 2010.

Regular Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and senior players Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir, Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh & Ashish Nehra were rested as the BCCI senior selection committee named a young 15-member team with new faces galore.

Stumper Dinesh Karthik has been named the specialist wicketkeeper for the tour which begins with a tri-series - also involving Sri Lanka - on May 28 while Madhya Pradesh batsman-wicketkeeper Naman Ojha is also part of the team.

Once the tri-series is over on June 9, spinner Piyush Chawla will join the team for India's subsequent two T20 Internationals against Zimbabwe on June 12 and 13.

Apart from Karthik and Naman Ojha, the side includes specialist opening batsmen Murali Vijay, Raina, Kohli and Rohit Sharma, besides all-rounders in Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja.

Leg-spinner Amit Mishra, left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin will spearhead the slow bowling department in the tri-series, while the largely inexperienced pace assail will comprise Umesh Yadav, R Vinay Kumar, Ashok Dinda and Pankaj Singh.

Zimbabwe Tri-series squad: Suresh Raina (C), Virat Kohli (v-c), Murali Vijay, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rohit Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Vinay Kumar, Ashok Dinda, Pankaj Singh, Amit Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Naman Ojha.