Cricket: Sharma smashes ODI record 264

Rohit Sharma.

Rohit Sharma smashed the one-day international record score by bludgeoning Sri Lanka's attack for 264 in Kolkata as India recorded a fourth successive win against the tourists.

The 27-year-old blitzed nine sixes and 33 fours from 173 deliveries as he raced past the previous best of 219 compatriot Virender Sehwag set against West Indies in 2011.

Incredibly it was Sharma's second ODI double hundred, having scored 209 against Australia in Bangalore just over a year ago, and he became the first man to achieve the feat.

Sehwag and former team-mate Sachin Tendulkar are the only other players to reach 200 in one-day internationals.

Sharma's innings, with Virat Kohli contributing 66 at better than a run-a-ball, helped India post 404 for five - the fourth-highest total in the history of one-day internationals - before they dismissed their opponents for 251 to go 4-0 up in the five-match series.

Sri Lanka were made to pay for dropping Sharma, who was eventually dismissed off the final ball of the innings, in only the fifth over when he had made just four.

Sharma's progress to 50 was relatively pedestrian, taking 72 balls, but from that point he unleashed an array of shots which destroyed the tourists' bowling attack.

The acceleration from 100 to 250 was phenomenal, taking just 66 deliveries, and although he was dropped a further two times, in the 46th and 47th overs, by then the game had gone well beyond the control of a demoralised Sri Lanka.

Sharma, playing his first ODI since injuring his hand in India's tour of England, became only the second man to reach 250 in a limited-overs game but the highest score of 268 from Surrey's Alistair Brown in 2002 came in a domestic match.

- AAP