Ahmedabad: Skipper Angelo Mathews struck a fighting fifty to lift a struggling Sri Lanka to 274 for eight against India in the second one-day International at the Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, here today.
Electing to bat, the visitors lost early wickets but Mathews' unbeaten 92 - his innings laced with 10 fours and a six - and Kumar Sangakkara's valiant 61 took the side to respectability. The duo stitched a crucial 90-run fourth-wicket partnership after Lanka were struggling at 64 for three.
With the visitors being reduced to 220 for eight in the 44th over, Mathews got support from number-ten batsman Dhammika Prasad and the duo stitched a valuable 54-run unbeaten partnership to give the islanders the necessary push in the end.
Indian pace spearhead Umesh Yadav (2-54) struck with two important wickets before spinners Ravichandran Ashwin (2-49) and young Axar Patel (2-39) took charge to hurt the Sri Lankan batting.
Ravindra Jadeja, brought into the side for injured Varun Aaron, disappointed though he took a wicket with his left arm spin as he conceded 64 runs.
Ishant Sharma bowled well initially but gave away runs in the last over to conceded 58 runs without any success while Yadav (2 for 54) bowled a bit too short or too wide at times. India fielded well with Ambati Rayudu picking up two catches, besides effecting a run-out.
Sri Lanka commenced on a poor note when Kusal Perera, who had replaced Upul Tharanga, fell to the sixth ball of the match when he played across and was trapped leg before by Umesh Yadav.
Tilekaratne Dilshan, at the other end, batted aggressively and took ten runs with the help of two successive fours in speedster Yadav's second over.
The seasoned batsman then hit Ashwin for four successive fours in the bowler's first over, and tenth of the innings, to give the innings some momentum as the Lankan total reached 50.
However, he tried to cut an arm ball fired into the stumps by Patel in the very next over and lost his stumps after having added 51 runs for the second wicket with Sangakkara. He also hit 7 fours in making 35 off 30 balls.
