Rohit Sharma overtakes Brian Lara to become 4th-highest scorer in ODI World Cup history

India captain Rohit Sharma went past legendary West Indies batter Brian Lara to become the fourth-highest scorer in the history of ODI World Cups. Rohit missed out on his 54th ODI half-century but did the damage in the powerplay in India’s 257-run chase at the MCA Stadium in Pune.

Rohit went hell for leather from the get-go while Shubman Gill played the anchor role to put the Bangla Tigers under pressure early on. Rohit took the attack to Bangladesh pacer Shoriful Islam in the first over itself, smashing him for two boundaries. He attacked Shoriful in the third over again, hitting him for a boundary and a massive six off a short delivery.

Rohit kept his aggressive intent on and hit spinner Nasum Ahmed for a couple of boundaries to keep the pressure on Bangladesh in India’s 257-run chase. Gill also grew into the game after which Rohit took down Hasan Mahmud before eventually being dismissed by him in the 13th over, getting caught at the deep square leg boundary. He scored 48 runs off 40 balls, smashing seven boundaries and two



sixes.

With this innings, Rohit overtook Lara to become the fourth highest scorer in the history of ODI World Cups. He is now only behind Sachin Tendulkar (2278 runs), Ricky Ponting (1743 runs) and Kumar Sangakkara (1531 runs).

In fact, Rohit has been a thorn in Bangladesh’s side in ODI World Cups, having hit a century against them in the last two editions. He scored 137 runs off 126 balls in the quarter-finals of the 2015 World Cup, before smashing 104 runs off 92 balls in the 2019 World Cup. He is also the leading run-scorer against Bangladesh in ODI World Cups.

Rohit has been in prime form in the ongoing World Cup. After being dismissed for a duck against Australia, Rohit bounced back with a massive hundred against Afghanistan, before scoring a half-century against Pakistan.

Rohit scored 131 runs off 84 balls as India beat Afghanistan by 8 wickets in New Delhi. He then destroyed Pakistan’s bowling unit in Ahmedabad, amassing 86 runs off 63 balls as India chased down the 192-run target with 7 wickets and 19.3 overs remaining.