Hambantota, July 21: Virat Kohli notched up a brisk hundred, while Virender Sehwag missed his ton by a whisker as India posted a daunting 314 for 6 against Sri Lanka in the first one-dayer here today.
Kohli, who scored his fourth hundred in his last five innings today, was in sublime form and starred in a 173-run second wicket stand with Sehwag to lay the foundation for a big total here.
The 23-year-old Kohli blasted nine boundaries in his 113-ball innings, while Sehwag, who was dropped by Tillakaratne Dilshan on nought in the second over, had 10 boundaries in his 97-ball innings.
India had a shaky start after skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (35) won the toss and elected to bat at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium here.
Sehwag looked rusty early on and got a respite initially but his partner Gautam Gambhir (3) was not lucky and was sent packing after being bowled while trying to work out a Kulasekara delivery square in the third over.
It was one down batsman Kohli who broke the shackles with a hard slash to bring up the first boundary through point, two balls later off Kulasekara.
The young right-hander picked up another boundary when he worked down a Malinga ball to fine leg in the fourth over.
Unusually restrained for long, Sehwag finally blasted two fours in the sixth over off Malinga. In the ninth over, the duo picked up two more boundaries before the opener smashed another four off Angelo Mathews over extra cover.
In the 11th over, Sehwag survived again when Kulasekara had almost caught him at mid-off and two balls later, Kohli too got a chance when Perera who failed to grab a difficult chance on his follow through.
In the 13th over, Sehwag hit Perera for a boundary at mid-on and then picked up another four over square leg in the 17th over off Herath. He picked up a single in the next ball to reach his fifth.
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