COLOMBO: India made mess of a brilliant start as they just managed to scrape through to a narrow 33-run win in the third cricket one-dayer to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series.
Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene raked up a sensational 94-run knock and brought his team close to the doors of an incredible victory but could not finish the game in his team's favor as the hosts innings folded at 204 in 49 overs.
After putting up 237 on board, India had the Lankans on the mat as the hosts were reduced to 94 for seven at one stage but visitors dropped as many as four catches to put themselves in an embarrassing situation in the flood lit affair.
A sloppy fielding allowed Jayawardene -- dropped once and Thilan Thushara -- dropped twice -- to stitch an 81-run stand, raising hopes of a Lankan win at R Premadasa stadium. Indian strike bowler Zaheer Khan came to the rescue of his team when he bowled Thushara (30) with a yorker but tension was yet to evaporate from Indian faces as Jaywardene was still at the wicket.
The Lankan skipper departed when he chipped one off Munaf Patel and Praveen Kumar this time made no mistake in holding on to the chance, missing out on a well deserved century. Yet, he succeeded in teaching a few cricketing lessons to the Indian team.
Early during the Lankan chase Khan and Praveen Kumar produced a devastating spell of seam bowling to put India on the victory path. Kumar and Khan shared five wickets between them after their skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni led from front with his 76-run knock to help India put a fighting total on the board.
Jayawardene, dropped by Yuvraj Singh at 75 off Patel, hit six fours and one six in his defiant knock as he waged a lone battle from one end and saw his teammates, barring Thushara, departing one after another from the other.
Thushara, after being dropped by Rohit Sharma in slip and by S Badrinath at the long on, did his bit in Lankan's losing cause helping himself with two boundaries. Earlier, the pace duo of Khan (3/23) and Kumar (2/62) had squeezed the life out rival batting line up by their amazing discipline and accuracy as they kept a tight line and bowled wicket to wicket. Patel claimed three wickets while off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and part time bowler Yuvraj chipped in with one wicket each.
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