Continued failure of Indian batting and their indisciplined bowling handed Sri Lanka a one-sided 74-run victory in the triangular series final in Dambulla on Saturday. Indian captain MS Dhoni was the last man dismissed in a 300-run chase after team's batting crumbled under pressure put by the Sri Lankans.
Earlier, Virender Sehwag got run out after brisk 28, while Dinesh Karthik's poor form continued as the Tamil Nadu batsman nicked a leg-side delivery, which seemed to have brushed his thigh pad, to wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara.
For Sri Lanka, Tillakaratne Dilshan struck a blistering century as the hosts exploited a sloppy bowling display by the Indians to amass an imposing 299 for eight.
Captain Kumar Sangakkara (71) and Mahela Jayawardene (39) were the other notable scorers for the hosts who have left India with a stiff asking rate of nearly six runs per over to record their second successive series triumph on Lankan soil in three months.
Umpiring decisions and manic appealing dominated the chase, but couldn't alter the expected result. Dinesh Karthik was given out caught off the thigh pad. Virender Sehwag's plumb lbw was not given, but he ran himself out off the same ball. Yuvraj Singh got away with a caught-behind before having scored a run, but was given out off one he didn't seem to have edged - 26 runs later. MS Dhoni survived a close lbw call when on 12, but ran out of partners as the required run-rate mounted.
Thisara Perera, by now Sri Lanka's India specialist, and Suraj Randiv, who got nice drift and dip, kept the wicket flow going in the middle.
Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni tried to buck the trend of Sehwag-over-game-over, but Sri Lanka were at them all the time. Kohli's uncharacteristic hoick showed the pressure the required rate exerted, Raina's cameo involved too many risks and ended prematurely from India's point of view, and Dhoni's 67 were too late and too few.
In the End Sehwag adjusted Man of the Series, he scored 268 runs in 5 matches with one century.
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