Riding on skipper M.S. Dhoni’s 76 and Suresh Raina’s 53, India managed to score 237 runs losing 9 wickets. For Sri Lanka, Ajantha Mendis was again in the picture for taking 3 for 56 runs. When Sri Lanka came to bat, it was already presumed that the run chase might not look that easy considering the support the pitch offers to the slow bowlers later during the day.

Sanath Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara opened the Sri Lankan innings and much was expected from Jayasuriya to blaze away and to provide a solid start, so that there was nothing much to do when the spinners come into play. That never happened, surprisingly, it was the Indian new ball bowlers who did the damage. Four Sri Lankan wickets were felled with some accurate piece of bowling by Zaheer Khan and Praveen Kumar and by the end of the tenth over, the Sri Lankan score card read 41 for four, all the drama happening within the first power play.

Skipper Mahela Jayawardena was joined by Tillakaratne Dilshan, with the latter going hard at the bowlers, but, with the introduction of Munaf Patel the tide turned over the Lankans again and Munaf joined the party by scalping Dilshan. With Dilshan, Sri Lanka lost half their side with the score card reading 58 for five. Dhoni introduced his only recognized spinner Harbhajan Singh, who responded by taking the wicket of Chaminda Vaas in his first over.

Jayawardena on the other hand had scored a mere 5 runs of 29 deliveries, facing all the onslaught and most importantly holding one end tight for his side. He was joined by Nuwan Kulasekara, who had proven in the previous match that he could be handy with the bat in need. Both the players tried a resurrection and they batted well for the next nine and half overs warding off the spin attack of Harbhajan and Yuvraj Singh and building up a partnership of 35 runs, when Kulasekara got out. Thilan Thushara walked in to play and he too like Kulasekara had scored well in the second ODI. Jayawardena and Thushara made another attempt to save the game. Both started cautiously and when the asking rate started to climb high, the run scoring became brisk. With Jayawardena still at the crease, it was difficult for India to predict a victory and the Sri Lankan skipper was doing exactly the same. In the process, Jayawardena notched up a well made half century.

With spinners doing no considerable damage, Dhoni decided use his fast bowlers, but the Sri Lankan pair, now well settled were running for everything. By the 40th over, Sri Lanka had managed to score 152 runs, still 86 runs required for victory. Zaheer Khan came back to bowl again and he scalped the wicket of Thushara who made a valuable contribution of 30 runs. Jayawardena was left to play the rest of the innings with only Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan to accompany him with an asking rate of 10 per over.
Jayawardena by then exhausted, needed a runner in Chamara Kapugedera and then decided to go for the big hits for everything that was hurled at him. But it was proving difficult and he was finally out to Munaf Patel, much to the relief of the Indian team. Jayawardena played a brilliant knock of 94. Munaf eventually takes Murali’s wicket, bringing an end to the Sri Lankan innings at 204.

For India, Zaheer Khan was impressive taking 3 wickets for 23 runs. Munaf Patel also grabbed three and Praveen Kumar took two wickets. The spinners Harbhajan and Yuvraj took one wicket each. India wins the match by 33 runs and takes a 2-1 lead in the series.304945