How Rohit Sharma’s 35-ball century in Indore left Sri Lankan bowlers needing therapy |
You were probably finishing dinner on December 22, 2017. Maybe switching on the TV for what you thought would be a normal Friday night T20. By the time you washed your plate, Rohit Sharma had already hit a century, and Sri Lanka’s bowlers were questioning their career choices.
Thisara Perera had won the toss and chosen to bowl. Again. He looked at the small boundaries at Indore and saw advantage. Rohit Sharma looked at those same boundaries and saw targets. The Sri Lankan captain probably thought he was being clever. The Indian captain just smiled that sheepish smile you know so well. Two hours later, that smile made complete sense.
Angelo Mathews welcomed Rohit with short balls. Gentle ones, mind you. Sub-115 kph, the kind that shouldn’t trouble an international batsman. Rohit scored 10 runs in his first 8 balls. Your WhatsApp groups must have lit up. “Same old Rohit, slow starter,” someone typed. Little did we know he was just measuring the distance to the fence with his eyes. The next 27 balls were going to be different.
Fifty runs in 23 balls. That was the warm-up. The next fifty came in 12 deliveries. Twelve. That’s fewer balls than some batsmen take to get off the mark. While you were still processing the fifty, he was already thinking about double hundred. That’s how his mind works, you see. Always ahead.
KL Rahul was playing his shots at the other end, making it look like a proper........