On Sunday, Rohit Sharma broke another record when his innings of 63 in the third ODI against the West Indies in Cuttack earned him the accolade of having scored more runs than any other player in history as an opening batsman in a calendar year.
Before the match started, Sharma needed just nine runs to break the 22 year old record of Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya across of formats of the game, and he passed his mark and went on to set a new benchmark of 2,442 runs.
That came after the 159 that he made in the previous match in the series in Visakhapatnam made him the leading run scorer in OCIs this year, an achievement he extended even further with his innings in Cuttack.
It has been a year to remember for Rohit, who was also the leading run scorer at the World Cup in England earlier this year. And, after opening in limited cricket for some time, he was finally given his chance at the top of the order in test matches in the series against South Africa.
He repaid their faith in spectacular fashion. In four innings, he scored 529 runs, and made four centuries, including a career best 212 in the third test in the series.
Meanwhile in that same match on Sunday, West Indian opener and wicket-keeper Shai Hope became the second fastest player ever to reach 3,000 runs in ODIs, behind South Africa’s Hashim Amla.
Hope reached the landmark by scoring 42 before he was dismissed in the 20th over by Mohammed Shami. Sunday was his 67th ODI innings for the West Indies, and he got to the landmark faster than Pakistan’s Babar Azam who took 68 innings, and legendary fellow West Indian, Viv Richards, who did it in 69.
Amla though is clear on his own having taken only 58 innings to achieve the feat.
Unfortunately for Hope his efforts were in vain as his side lost the match, and the series, by 4 wickets, with Virat Kohli, who is second to Sharma in terms of ODI runs scored this year producing a match winnings innings of 85.
