Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (71), Suresh Raina (76) and Virat Kohli (54) struck half centuries before India got all out for 258 with two balls to spare in the fourth one dayer against Sri Lanka on Wednesday.
For the hosts, Thilan Thushara took five wickets for 47 runs and India lost their last seven wickets for just 34 runs to be skittled out in 49.4 overs.
Having slumped to 81 for three, Raina and Dhoni took control of the situation and judiciously mixed cheeky singles with big shots forcing Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene to rework his strategies.
The 143-run partnership between the two took India to a position of comfort from where on the remaining batsmen only had to score at a consistent rate.
Not allowing Ajantha Mendis to get into a rhythm, Raina decided to attack the bowler as he lofted his off-break to the long-off boundary.
With the onus of responsibility once again falling on Dhoni, the Indian captain tried to settled down quickly as he forced a Thushara delivery past the cover boundary.
Raina matched Dhoni's aggression and India raced to the 150 mark in 185 balls as the two decided to unnerve the Sri Lankan bowlers.
In no time, Raina reached a well-deserved half century -- his seventh -- in 56 balls as he came down the track and lofted Muttiah Muralitharan to the extra cover boundary.
His front-foot hit over the deep-midwicket boundary for a six of Murali was a beauty.
Dhoni got to his 50 in 60 balls and it included three boundaries.
A visibly tired Raina then tried to hit Thushara over the long off and was caught by Nuwan Kulasekara, his 76 runs coming off 78 balls and including six boundaries and one six.
Dhoni, playing with a runner, followed suit, caught by Sanath Jayasuriya at covers off Thushara for a well-compiled 71 runs.
Earlier, the Indian openers looked confident and after a cautious start, Virat Kohli steered a swinging delivery from Kulasekara through the slip for four runs to get into the groove.
Partner Gautam Gambhir (17) preferred hitting the bowlers over the fielding cordon but he perished soon, slashing Kulasekara straight into the hands of Tillakaratane Dilshan.
India got another rude jolt as Yuvraj Singh, who was tentative right from the beginning, became Chaminda Vaas' 400th victim before he could even opened his account.
He was smartly caught by skipper Mahela Jayawardene at short mid-wicket as Yuvraj failed to keep the ball down.
An unperturbed Virat, however, kept going and hit Kulasekara to the mid-wicket boundary on the way to his half-century.
His maiden 50 came in 81 minutes and 62 balls and included six hits to the boundary. He, however, could not stretch it further as Thushara castled him for 54.
S Badrinath, who was required to play a cameo in the dying overs, only managed six runs before Jayawardene caught him at short mid-wicket.
India lost wickets in a heap as Harbhajan Singh was run out for two, while Rohit Sharma was caught by Malinda Warnapura off Ajantha Mendis for 18.
Thushara went on to complete his five-wicket haul by removing Praveen Kumar and Zaheer Khan.
Source:ndtv
