Sri Lanka beat India by three wickets to level series 1-1

Tillakaratne Dilshan struck a blistering 123 as Sri Lanka held their nerves in the tense dying moments to snatch a three-wicket victory in a high scoring second cricket ODI against India.

Tillakaratne Dilshan struck a blistering 123 as Sri Lanka held their nerves in the tense dying moments to snatch a three-wicket victory in a high scoring second cricket one-day international against India to level the five-match series 1-1 here on Friday night.

Chasing India’s 301 for 7 built around a captain’s knock of 107 by Mahendra Singh Dhoni,the visitors made up for their narrow defeat at Rajkot by overhauling the target with five balls to spare in a pulsating floodlit contest.

The explosive Dilshan notched up his second consecutive and fourth one-day hundred to lay the platform for the run chase for Sri Lanka.

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India did well to recover from a rather sluggish start to post 301 mainly relying on Dhoni’s fireworks in the end but a few fielding lapses in the very fag end in the Sri Lankan innings tilted the scale in the visitors’ favour in a match which went down the wire.

The capacity crowd at VCA Statium in Jamtha were treated to another run feast with both teams scoring over 300 runs but unlike the Rajkot feast the bowlers did get some assistance from the track.

The Indians,whose fielding has left a lot to be desired in the ongoing series against Sri Lanka,were patchy in their bowling and the early dismissals of Virender Sehwag (4) and Gautam Gambhir (2) when they batted did have a bearing in the final outcome.