Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar guided India to a much needed win against Sri Lanka to reach the finals of the CB Series in Hobart on Tuesday. Yuvraj Singh too make a significant contribution as he scores crusial 35 runs before Rohit Sharma joined Gautam Gambhir to score the winning run.
Earlier, A spectacular middle-order collapse saw Sri Lanka make just 179 from 47.1 overs and India had few problems reaching the target in 32.2 overs, scoring 180 for three.
Although Sri Lanka still have one game remaining in the series, against Australia on Friday, they cannot reach the finals and it has been a disappointing tournament for last year's World Cup finalists.
Importantly for India, star batsman Sachin Tendulkar burst out of his form slump ahead of the finals against Australia with his first half-century of the series.
Tendulkar was back to his brilliant best as he punished the bowlers, hitting three successive boundaries off seamer Ishara Amerasinghe in making 63 from 54 balls, including 10 fours.
Gautam Gambhir continued his impressive form with an unbeaten 63, while Yuvraj Singh looked dangerous with a rapid 36.
Sri Lanka had appeared to be cruising towards a big total at 72 for one after being sent in to bat, with veteran opener Sanath Jayasuriya back in some touch and Kumar Sangakkara continuing his good form.
However, Sangakkara's dismissal for 33, caught behind by Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni from the bowling of the recalled Praveen Kumar, sparked a destructive collapse.
Sri Lanka lost 6-21 in just over 11 overs to slump to 93 for seven.
Kumar, who was named man of the match, and teenage paceman Ishant Sharma did most of the damage, claiming four wickets apiece.
Sharma again impressed with 4-41, while Kumar, playing just his second game of the series, grabbed three wickets in as many overs to tear the heart out of the Sri Lankan batting and finish with 4-31.
The teenager so has picked up 13 wickets in the tri-series at 19.46.
Sangakkara was quickly followed back to the pavilion by captain Mahela Jayawardene, caught by Rohit Sharma from the bowling of Kumar for just three.
With the skipper gone, the innings quickly fell apart.
Chamara Silva's struggles continued when he fell for a duck and Jayasuriya then threw his wicket away when he top edged an attempted pull from the bowling of Irfan Pathan on 34.
Tillakaratne Dilshan made just eight and Chaminda Vaas played a poor shot to fall to Sharma for a duck.
It was then left to Chamara Kapugedera and tail-ender Lasith Malinga to add some respectability to the innings, the pair putting on 46 before the latter became Sharma's fourth victim.
Kapugedera showed rare fight late in the innings, making a stylish 57.
Meanwhile, Mahendra Singh Dhoni became the second Indian wicketkeeper and 17th in the world to take 100 one-day international catches during India's last tri-series league game against Sri Lanka.
Dhoni, who had 98 catches and 31 stumpings to his credit before the match, reached the milestone when he pouched an edge of Chamara Silva off Praveen Kumar for the fourth wicket to fall in the Sri Lankan innings.
He went on to take one more catch in the innings to take his tally to 101 and total dismissals to 132 from 104 matches.
Dhoni's 132 is second only to Nayan Mongia who had effected 110 catches and 44 stumpings to aggregate 154 dismissals from 140 matches while playing between 1994 and 2000.
Dhoni is 16th overall in the total number of ODI dismissals in a list headed by retiring Australian Adam Gilchrist who has 471 dismissals (416 catches and 55 stumpings).
The Indian captain has 78 dismissals from 26 Tests (65 catches and 13 stumpings) to his credit and two dismissals -- all catches - from 10 Twenty20 matches he has played so far.
Malinga departs on 12. An easy catch for R Uthappa on Ishant Sharma's delivery.
Praveen Kumar has been proved the most succesfull bowler so far. He has taken three crusial wickets of Sangakkara(33), Jayawardene (3) and Silva (0). Sangakkara and Silva were caught behind the stumps by MS Dhoni while Rohit Sharma took a difficult catch of Jayawardene.
After 31 overs Sri Lanka scored 106 and has lost 7 wickets.
An Indian win would guarantee them a berth in the tri-series finals, while Sri Lanka need a victory to keep their finals hopes alive.
Earlier, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to field first in Tuesday's tri-series one-day international against Sri Lanka in Hobart.
India made two changes to the side that lost to Australia by 18 runs in Sydney on Sunday with Praveen Kumar and Munaf Patel replacing Virender Sehwag and Shantha Sreesanth.
Sri Lanka, who need to win the match to stay in contention for a place in the finals, made one change to the side that lost to Australia in Melbourne on Friday with Chamara Kapugedera coming in for Farveez Maharoof.
Teams:
India - Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rohit Sharma, Robin Uthappa, Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel.
Sri Lanka - Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Sanath Jayasuriya, Dilruwan Perera, Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chamara Silva, Chamara Kapugedera, Chaminda Vaas, Lasith Malinga, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ishara Amerasinghe.
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