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India captain Rohit Sharma withdrew the appeal to dismiss Dasun Shanaka despite the Sri Lankan captain being considerably outside of his crease at the non-striker's end and stated that he was unaware of pacer Mohammed Shami effecting the run-out.
He lauded Shanaka's knock and mentioned that the Sri Lankan captain deserved to get to his hundred. "I had no idea Shami had done that. When he went up in an appeal... Again, he [Shanaka] was batting on 98. The way he batted was brilliant. We got to give it to him. We cannot get him out like that. We wanted to get him out the way we thought we would get him out. But that was not something that we thought of. But again, hats off to him, he played really well." The Indian captain heaped praises on the batters for their fabulous performance helping the team reach a mammoth total but was critical of the bowlers as they were not able to finish the game quickly. "Pretty impressed actually. We started off well with the bat, it was a great effort from all batters. The platform was set for all the batters, I thought we could have bowled better. I don't want to be too critical, as the conditions were not easy. It wasn't easy to bowl under the lights especially when dew comes in," expressed the right-hander. Rohit stated that the team still needs to improve in certain departments and work as a group to get better. He also applauded the bowlers for their pivotal spell with the new ball that helped India get ahead in the game. "Everyone needs to come to the party if you want to win, but we bowled well upfront. You got to be in the game to take those half-chances. You are not going to have a perfect game always, there are certain areas to work on as a group. All eleven members need to put in an effort collectively," stated the Indian captain. Put to bat first by Sri Lanka, India scored 373/7 in their 50 overs. Indian top-order batters delivered fantastic contributions, with Virat Kohli (113) scoring his 73rd international ton and 45th ODI ton. Skipper Rohit Sharma (83), Shubman Gill (70) also scored valuable fifties. Rajitha finished with figures of 3/88 in ten overs. Madushanka, Chamika Karunaratne, skipper Dasun Shanaka and Dhananjay de Silva took a wicket each. Chasing 374, Sri Lanka lost wickets at a consistent rate. Knocks from skipper Dasun Shanaka (108* off 88 balls) and Pathum Nissanka (72 off 80 balls) were exceptional but they did not get much support from other batters, except Dhananjaya de Silva (47 off 40 balls). Nissanka and Asalanka had a 72-run stand for the fourth wicket. Umran Malik took three wickets, while Siraj (2/30) provided a good start to Men in Blue. Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal and Mohammed Shami took a wicket each. Virat Kohli was adjudged as 'Man of the Match' for his century. The second ODI will take place on January 12 in Eden Gardens, Kolkata while the third ODI will take place in Greenfield International Stadium at Thiruvananthapuram on January 15. (ANI)
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