India account for Sri Lanka and finish in first place

It was high fives all-round as India cruised to the top of the table.

Rohit Sharma became the first player to hit five centuries in a single World Cup as India cantered to a seven-wicket win in their final World Cup group match against Sri Lanka on Saturday.

The opener smashed 103 off 94 deliveries as semi-finalists India chased down their target of 265 in 43.3 overs to end the group stage with seven wins, one defeat and a washout.

Sharma's opening partner KL Rahul top-scored with 111 as the pair put on 189 runs for the first wicket to put India in complete command.

Man-of-the-match Sharma reached his milestone with a boundary off Kasun Rajitha to pass the mark set by Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara, who scored four hundreds at the 2015 tournament.

His century came off 92 balls, with 14 fours and two sixes.

Sharma was dismissed shortly afterwards, caught by Angelo Mathews off the bowling of Rajitha.

Known as the “hitman”, Sharma leads the current World Cup's run-scoring charts with 647 runs in eight matches after hitting his third successive century.

He is only the fourth batsman after Sachin Tendulkar, Matthew Hayden and Shakib Al Hasan to score more than 600 runs at a single World Cup. He was later joined by David Warner in this club.

Rahul registered his first century of the tournament but was caught behind shortly before the end of the game off veteran paceman Lasith Malinga — playing his final World Cup match — after hitting 11 fours and one six.

Skipper Virat Kohli remained unbeaten on 34 and Hardik Pandya hit the winning runs to give India a chance of finishing above group leaders Australia, who are playing South Africa in Saturday's later match at Old Trafford.

Earlier, Mathews hit his third one-day international century and put on 124 runs for the fifth wicket with Lahiru Thirimanne (53) to give Sri Lanka a respectable total after they were reeling at 55-4.

Jasprit Bumrah returned impressive figures of 3-37 in his 10 overs as India, who had already qualified for the semi-finals, restricted Sri Lanka with some quality bowling.

The 1996 champions finished their World Cup campaign with three wins, four defeats and two games ending in no result.

Captain Dimuth Karunaratne said Sri Lanka would take stock as they try to build for the future.

THE STAR

Rohit Sharma made it look too easy on his way to yet another century.

Rohit Sharma. Again. With three records on his radar, he was able to track down two of them in this instance. With his 92 ball century, Sharma moved passed Sangakkara for most centuries in a World Cup, passed fellow countryman Tendulkar for most group stage runs in a single World Cup, and more importantly led India to a comfortable run chase.

THE MOMENT

Bumrah celebrates the wicket of Dimuth Kurunaratne.

It took just 11.5 overs for the Indian new ball bowlers to leave Sri Lanka at 4-55 and basically in a position they could never recover from. Dhoni took four dismissals as Bumrah took 2, Pandya one and Jadeja also one. If India is to play in the final, they will need to account for either England or Australia's brutal openers and will need to get off to a start of this quality again with the ball.

THE FAILURE

There was not much celebration for Lasith Malinga in his final ODI.

In his final ODI, Lasith Malinga failed to make an impact with the ball, in fact, the Sri Lankan's failed to make an impact as India got to 189 before losing their first wicket in the 31st over. Malinga's figures of 10 overs 1 for 82 is not a fitting way for the legend to leave the game, but he failed to have an impact in his penultimate spell.

WHAT NEXT - India will now take on New Zealand on Tuesday whilst Australia take on England on Thursday. Sri Lanka will host New Zealand in two tests and three T20I's later this month. TONIGHT - Finally, a night off cricket. I wonder what replay will be showing?