Mohammad Shami won his second Player of the Match award in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023 thanks to his superlative and dominating performance in the India vs. Sri Lanka match which was played in Mumbai on November 2, Thursday.
Sri Lanka captain won the toss and chose to bowl first in Mumbai, a venue where teams batting first have often posted huge scores in this tournament. Dilshan Madushanka gave Sri Lanka the perfect start, clean-bowling Rohit Sharma for 4 runs.
But then Virat Kohli (88), Shubman Gill (92), and Shreyas Iyer (82) propelled the Indian innings to 357/8 in 50 overs. Dilshan Madushanka picked 5/80 for Sri Lanka.
In response, it was disappointing performance by Sri Lankan batters. Kasun Rajitha top-scored with 14 as the Islanders were blown away for 55 runs and lost the game by 302 runs. Mohammad Shami starred for India with 5/18, his second fifer in this World Cup.
His victims were Charith Asalanka (1), Angelo Mathews (12), Dushan Hemantha (0), Dushmantha Chameera (0) and Kasun Rajitha (14).
He was also named Player of the Match for his brilliant bowling. Mohammad Shami with his 5 wickets went past Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan’s record of 44 wickets in the Cricket World Cup.
Mohammad Shami now is the highest wicket-taker for India in CWC with 45 scalps in just 14 matches.
He broke several other records as well as this was his fourth five-wicket haul in ODIs. He went past Javagal Srinath’s record of 4 fifers and Shami now has the most fifers by an Indian pacer in ODI cricket.
Shami also now holds the record for most 4-wicket hauls in Cricket World Cups with 7. He also equaled Mitchell Starc’s record for most five-wicket hauls by a pacer in Cricket World Cups with 3.
Here are Mohammad Shami’s five wickets in the match against Sri Lanka:
