Sri Lanka oust India to take title

A strong performance from the strike bowlers and a well compiled half century from Mahela Jayawardena handed Sri Lanka victory in the final.

Sri Lanka beat India by four wickets in the final of the triangular series at the Shere Bangla stadium. India put in a strong fight to make a match of it but the Islanders looked to be in control all along.

India were put into bat after Kumar Sangakkara won yet another toss and got off to a disastrous start with Gautam Gambhir going on the second ball of the match. The Sri Lankan pacers inflicted further damage with the wickets of Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni inside the Quick start period but Virender Sehwag kept going after the bowling from one end. He was out soon after and that left India in dire straits. Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja had to share the responsibility of getting India out of trouble and they delivered just that. The two shared a well compiled 106 run stand for the sixth wicket and brought some respectability to the Indian total. Jadeja lost his wicket at a crucial stage as India were preparing for a launch in the Extreme Performance period which meant Raina had to lead the charge along with the lower order batsmen. He went to get his third ODI century and helped India to a total of 245.

Sri Lanka started their run chase with Tharanga back in the hut on third ball of the innings but India lost Ashish Nehra, who picked up a groin injury at the start of his spell. Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara, who have been in top form recently ensured that they capitalised in the mandatory Power  Play and scored 64 runs in that period. India’s hopes got a new life when they picked up a couple of quick wickets which brought two new batsmen to the crease. Mahela Jayawardena came to Sri Lanka’s rescue and held up one end as Sri Lanka kept losing wickets at crucial stages in the inning. India scrapped hard towards the end but Sri Lanka were always in control as reflected by the Castrol Index worm and wrapped things up in the 49th over. Mahela Jayawardena finished unbeaten with a match winning 71.

Nuwan Kulasekara was adjudged Man of the Match for his four wickets which also earned him a Bowing Efficiency of 250.