India defeated Sri Lanka by five wickets to go 2-1 up in the five match one-day series against Sri Lanka and the star for India in the third match were two left-handers, Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina.
Gambhir made a calculated 102 while Raina made an explosive 65 to give India the lead in the series, says a report in The Times of India.
India were chasing a stiff total of 287 runs and at one time it looked that Sri Lanka will run away with the match, but some decisive stroke-play from Raina and some able support from Irfan Pathan made sure that India achieve the target with two balls to spare.
Raina who was awarded the man-of-the-match award was quoted in The Week saying, “"I learnt over the years, how to bat when you need eight an over, Gautam played very well early on, set the platform. I looked to play straight, not to play cross, I knew I could hit over cover, over mid-wicket, I also wanted to run hard. Credit goes to Gautam, he batted very well.”
Indian captain, MS Dhoni in the post match presentation ceremony said, “We had a chance, because Gautam was still batting, and we all had belief in Raina, we also had Irfan and Ashwin. I think those two wickets changed the game, Gautam did really well, we needed one of the top three to put in a performance like this.”
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka suffered a severe blow as their veteran wicket-keeper batsman Kumar Sangakkara injured his hand and will be out of action for a minimum of four weeks, says a report in The Hindu.
This means that Sangakkara will not take part in any of the action against India, Sangakkara was hit on his right hand by a rising Ashok Dinda delivery, he did continued batting after that, but went for the x-rays when he got out.
