Defending champions, Team India began their Champions Trophy 2017 journey with a comfortable 124-run win over Pakistan. The top four batsmen (Dhawan, Rohit, Kohli & Yuvraj) scored half-centuries & the bowlers kept picking up wickets at a regular interval as India made it 13-2 in the head-to-head ICC encounters against Pakistan.
Riding high on the confidence from the victory, Virat Kohli & co. take on neighbours, Sri Lanka at The Oval with one eye on the semi-final spot in the 8th edition of ICC Champions Trophy. Let’s take a look at the important numbers to watch out for.
Dominant India: India have beaten Sri Lanka 5 times by a margin of 150+ runs being one of the 3 teams to do so against an opponent in ODIs. These are the instances of the record:
India’s Biggest Wins (in terms of runs) v Sri Lanka in ODIs
|
Margin |
Venue |
Date |
IND |
SL |
MoM |
|
183 runs |
Johannesburg |
10-03-2003 |
292/6 |
109/10 |
Javagal Srinath - 4/35 |
|
169 runs |
Cuttack |
02-11-2014 |
363/5 |
194/10 |
Ajinkya Rahane - 111 (107) |
|
157 runs |
Taunton |
26-05-1999 |
373/6 |
216/10 |
S Ganguly - 183 (158) |
|
153 runs |
Kolkata |
13-11-2014 |
404/5 |
251/10 |
Rohit Sharma - 264 (175) |
|
152 runs |
Nagpur |
25-10-2005 |
350/6 |
198/10 |
Rahul Dravid - 85* (63) |
CT Battle: The two nations have played 3 times in the Champions Trophy with the first two matches ending in No Results in the 2002 edition. Surprisingly, the final couldn’t be concluded even after having a reserve day along with the main day. Sri Lanka completed their batting on both the days but the rains interrupted the game & the teams were declared as Co-Champions. India won the 3rd encounter convincingly beating Sri Lanka by 8 wickets with 90 balls to spare in the 2nd semi-final of the 2013 edition.
300-run victorious club: India has a phenomenal record against Sri Lanka winning 12 out of their 13 matches after scoring 300+ runs in the 1st innings. Having scored 324 runs in the first game & playing on batting friendly wickets, there could be a possibility with India repeating the feat against the Sri Lankan bowling attack that conceded 299 runs against South Africa at The Oval.
ODI H2H Milestone: This will be the 150th encounter between the two sides & the Men in Blue have won 83 matches compared to Sri Lanka’s 54 in ODI matches (1979 to 2017). No other two teams have faced each other on more occasions in ODI history.
A big game with big names, there’s a lot of stake on the match with one team looking to progress to the next stage & the other hoping to take their slim chances to qualify.
