But just when the pair seemed to have settled down, Jayawardene got out to a soft dismissal and the chase disintegrated therafter. It wasn’t too different to what happened with the Indians earlier.

Yuvraj makes it count

Yuvraj Singh didn’t have a great time when the Indian team travelled to Sri Lanka last time around, but on Saturday, he was concerned neither with the past, nor by the slowness of the track as he tailored a typical innings, as he top-scored with 66 off 88 balls. The innings came after an exciting start provided by opener Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir early on but their sudden departures, along with successive dismissals of Dhoni and Raina left India choked, to even playing out a maiden over inside the last powerplay.

Sehwag and Gambhir, after the early departure of Sachin Tendulkar to yet another dubious leg-before decision, spanked the new ball hard to raise the first 50 off just 46 balls.

Sehwag, who was taking the Lankan bowling attack apart, couldn’t force himself on the fielders though, and a relay effort from Muralitharan, Jayasuriya and Thushara beat an attempted third run from a diving Sehwag.

India did put up a few partnerships but, despite Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan attempting to accelerate at the end, they lost momentum against Maharoof’s slower deliveries and Mendis’s tweakers in the death.

In the end though, the little mistakes didn’t matter too much as India moved to within one win of taking the series.