Sri Lanka Hold Their Nerve To Level ODI Series

Sri Lanka Hold Their Nerve To Level ODI Series

Tillakaratne Dilshan hits a shot on his way to another century.

©REUTERS/Adnan Abidi (INDIA - Tags: SPORT CRICKET) Picture Supplied by Action Images

Sri Lanka 302-7 (Dilshan 123, Zaheer Khan 3-29) beat
India 301-7 (Dhoni 107, Raina 68, Kohli 54) by three wickets
Scorecard
Second One-Day International, Nagpur

Sri Lanka held their nerve to beat India by three wickets in the second One-Day International in Nagpur and level their five-match series at 1-1.

India won the toss and chose to bat first made their way to 301 for seven with Mahendra Singh Dhoni hitting a century and Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina half-centuries before 123 from Tillakaratne Dilshan and an unbeaten 37 at the death from Angelo Mathews got Sri Lanka home with five balls to spare.

Dhoni continued his superb run of form by making 107 in 111 balls with eight fours and two sixes after Virender Sewhag (2) and Gautam Gambhir (4) had departed cheaply.

Kohli made 54, putting on 62 with Sachin Tendulkar (43) while the biggest partnership came between Dhoni and Raina (68), the pair adding 126 for the fifth wicket.

Off-spinner Suraj Randiv marked his debut with three wickets for 51, picking up Kohli, Dhoni and Harbhajan Singh (0) but Sri Lanka still had plenty of work to do to get back into the series.

Dilshan then scored his second century in as many matches, his 123 coming off 113 balls and he was well supported by Mahela Jayawardene (39) and Upul Tharanga (37).

India fought their way back into the contest with Zaheer Khan taking three wickets to dismiss Jayawardene, Thilina Kandamby (27) and Chamara Kapugedera (2) and although Ashish Nehra bowled Dilshan, Mathews, despite carrying an injury, remained ice-cool at the end, scoring his 37 in just 25 runs including the winning hit off Ravi Jadeja through midwicket.

The third match is in Cuttack on 21st December.

© Cricket World 2009

Breaking news, score updates and interviews on Cricket World Live - tune in from Monday to Friday, 11:00 - 17:00 GMT and, get the latest from Cricket World® with Facebook, twitter and YouTube and keep up with the action with the latest cricket TV highlights and interviews.