in this article, we are going to discuss the Highest Individual ODI Scores against Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has been one of the most dominant ODI teams for the past decade. Despite a slow start, they failed to win many games, gaining momentum in 1996 when the island nation won their first ICC Cricket World Cup when no one expected it. It started a high trend that produced some big names in cricket, even though Sri Lanka is a small country.
The former champions have had some great fast bowlers, all-rounders, and spinners over the years and they have done wonders for their team. Yet there are batsmen who want to play against this opposition and perform well on their scheduled day. In this article, we take a look at some of the best innings played by batsmen against a competitive Sri Lankan bowling attack.
Table of Contents
Top 10: Highest Individual ODI Scores against Sri Lanka
Here are the top 10 highest individual scores by batsmen against Sri Lanka.
| PLAYER | RUNS (BALLS) | 4S/6S | VENUE | DATE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rohit Sharma (IND) | 264 (173) | 33/9 | Kolkata | 13 Nov 2014 |
| Faf Du Plessis (SA) | 185 (141) | 16/3 | Cape Town | 7 February 2017 |
| MS Dhoni (IND) | 183* (145) | 15/10 | Jaipur | 31 Oct 2005 |
| Sourav Ganguly (IND) | 183 (158) | 17/7 | Taunton | 26 May 1999 |
| Vivian Richards (WI) | 181 (125) | 16/7 | Karachi | 13 Oct 1987 |
| Luke Ronchi (NZ) | 170* (99) | 14/9 | Dunedin | 23 Jan 2015 |
| Brian Lara (WI) | 169 (129) | 15/4 | Sharjah | 16 Oct 1995 |
| Virat Kohli (IND) | 166* (110) | 13/8 | Thiruvananthapuram | 15 Jan 2023 |
| David Warner (AUS) | 163 (157) | 13/2 | Brisbane | 4 Mar 2012 |
| Jason Roy (ENG) | 162 (118) | 13/3 | The Oval | 29 Jun 2016 |
Key information from the above Highest Individual ODI Scores
4: Number of Indian players in the list ie MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Sourav Ganguly. They are followed by West Indies, where 2 legendary batsmen, Sir Vivian Richards and Brian Charles Lara, feature in the top 10 list of highest individual scores against Sri Lanka in ODI cricket.
2: Number of scores of 200 or more by Indian opening batsman Rohit Sharma against Sri Lanka in the ODI format. These 2 knocks came at home and with the intention of winning.
18: 18 scores of 150 or more against Sri Lanka in the 50-over format by 16 different batsmen. Only Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir have crossed this number twice.
264: The highest ODI score by a batsman in the history of ODI cricket and it came from the bat of current Indian captain Rohit Sharma who played this sensational innings at Eden Gardens, the Mecca of Indian cricket.
Batting first, India posted a massive score of 404/5 on the board thanks to the efforts of the Indian openers, who were relieved early in the innings and the Sri Lankans had to bear the brunt of it. Rohit scored the second ODI double-century of his career and the first to score more than 250 (264) in the format. It remains the highest score in ODIs and no batsman has come close to it.
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185: The highest score by a batsman against Sri Lanka is former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis, who made his career-best ODI score of 185 at Newlands in 2017. The brilliant innings came as South Africa posted a challenging score of 367 off 141 balls to win the match and it resulted in a 40-run win.
171.71: Luke Ronchi’s strike rate when he scored a stunning unbeaten 170 against visiting Sri Lanka at the University Oval in Dunedin. He came in at number seven and played a sensational innings with 9 sixes off just 99 balls.
Along with Grant Elliott, who scored 104*, he took New Zealand to 360/5 from 93/5 at one stage. His 170 ODI score is no. 7 or lower.
103.82: In contrast, David Warner has the second-lowest strike rate among batsmen who have scored 150 or more runs against Sri Lanka in ODIs. Warner took 157 balls to score 163 runs at the Gabba.
He may not have played at his usual level in terms of scoring rate, but his innings helped the hosts score 321 on the final day and beat Sri Lanka by 15 runs. Gautam Gambhir is the batsman with the fewest strikes while scoring 150 or more, with one of his two 150 scores coming at a strike rate of 102.
2: Two players have scored exactly 183 runs in an ODI innings against Sri Lanka and both are former Indian captains, MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly, who both led the team in the World Cup.
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Sourav Ganguly was the first batsman to score this and this score came in 1999 in an ICC World Cup group game at Taunton. On a typically overcast day in England, India was forced to bat first and it turned out to be Sri Lanka’s wrong decision.
Despite losing Ramesh early on, Ganguly in partnership with Rahul Dravid (145) crushed the Sri Lankan team with his impressive stroke play. The duo put on a massive 318-run stand for the second wicket and helped India post a total of 373 runs, giving them an easy win.
The other 183 was scored by MS Dhoni in 2005 at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur while chasing the target. Promoted up the batting order once again, the former India captain scored his only 150-plus score in ODIs and it was a successful run. – Chase India. With a target of 299 runs to win, the host team reached the target with 4 overs remaining as Dhoni’s innings excelled in 145 balls.
181: Before Ganguly made his famous 183 at Taunton, Vivian Richards had set the record for the highest score in a World Cup match against Sri Lanka. It happened in Karachi in 1987 in a group game captained by Richards
He is on his way to a magnificent score of 181 runs in just 125 balls. It included 7 sixes as Windies posted a mammoth score of 360 runs on the board, one of the highest scores in ODIs at that time.
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169: The other West Indian on this list, Brian Lara scored his career-best ODI innings of 169 in Sharjah in 1995. The innings came in just 129 balls, which helped his team post a mammoth total of 333 runs on the board. In the end, it proved to be enough as the Sri Lankan team fought very well in response to a total of 329 runs.
166: Virat Kohli’s favorite opponent in ODI cricket is Sri Lanka. He scored 10 of his 46 ODI centuries against Sri Lankan bowlers. However, he did not score more than 150 in any of his first 9 centuries against him.
This changed when Sri Lanka toured India once again in early 2023 and Kohli posted his second best score of 166* in the third ODI of the tour. His brilliant 110-ball innings included 8 maximum sixes as India fell just 10 runs short of the 400-run mark and Sri Lanka could not even half Kohli’s score and were bowled out for just 73 runs.
