Sri Lanka recorded their first victory in the one-day series in India, winning the fifth international by five wickets here on Sunday. The tourists, chasing India's 285-8 from 50 overs, won with 14 balls to spare in the day-night match at the Motera stadium here.
India hold an unassailable 4-1 lead in the seven-match series. The sixth match will be played in Rajkot on Wednesday and the seventh in Baroda next Saturday.
Brief scores: India 285-8 in 50 overs; Sri Lanka 286-5 in 47.4 overs.
GAMBHIR AND DRAVID SLAM CENTURIES:
Left-handed Gautam Gambhir scored 103 on his first appearance in the series and skipper Rahul Dravid made 103 not out as India piled up 285-8 in the fifth one-dayer against Sri Lanka here on Sunday.
India, who hold an unassailable 4-0 lead in the seven-match series, rested key batsman Sachin Tendulkar and frontline bowlers Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh for the day-night game.
Gambhir, a regular Test opener who last played a one-dayer in April 2003, seized the opportunity to smash 13 boundaries and a six in his maiden limited-overs century.
Dravid reached his 11th century off the penultimate ball of the innings, lofting Dilhara Fernando to the mid-wicket fence for his 11th boundary.
Dravid and Gambhir added 128 for the fourth wicket after India, sent in to bat by Sri Lankan captain Marvan Atapattu, were reduced to 69-3 by the 13th over.
Sri Lankan seamer Farveez Maharoof, named super-sub before the match, finished with 4-20 from five overs after replacing lanky left-armer Nuwan Zoysa as early as the 15th over.
Maharoof, who came on to bowl in the 37th over, halted India's charge from a promising 197-3 with the wickets of Gambhir, Venugopal Rao, Suresh Raina and Ajit Agarkar in successive overs.
India, however, plundered 34 runs in the last three overs to set Sri Lanka a formidable target of 5.8 runs an over.
Gambhir outscored his opening partner Virender Sehwag in a first-wicket stand of 50 in seven overs, when Zoysa hit back with two wickets off consecutive balls.
Zoysa bowled Sehwag for 19 and then trapped Mahendra Dhoni, India's batting hero in the previous two matches, leg-before to make India 50-2. It soon became 69-3 when Yuvraj Singh, who groped for 21 deliveries to score three, was caught at mid-wicket off Chaminda Vaas.
SCOREBOARD
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India
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G. Gambhir c Atapattu b Maharoof 103
V. Sehwag b Zoysa 19
M. Dhoni lbw b Zoysa 0
Y. Singh c Jayawardena b Vaas 3
R. Dravid not out 103
V. Rao c Tharanga b Maharoof 6
S. Raina lbw b Maharoof 13
A. Agarkar c Arnold b Maharoof 4
M. Kartik c Atapattu b Fernando 8
R. Singh not out 9
Extras: (B-1, LB-3, W-7, NB-6) 17
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Total: (for eight wickets) 285
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Fall of wickets: 1-50, 2-50, 3-69, 4-197, 5-208, 6-224, 7-230, 8-262
Bowling: Vaas 10-1-56-1, Fernando 10-0-77-1, Zoysa 5-0-29-2, Muralitharan 10-1-37-0, Dilshan 3-0-19-0, Jayasuriya 6-0-35-0, Arnold 1-0-8-0, Maharoof 5-0-20-4
Overs: 50
Super-subs: F. Maharoof (SRI) replaced N. Zoysa in 15th over
J. Yadav (IND) - unused
Toss: Sri Lanka
Umpires: Mark Benson (ENG) and Krishna Hariharan (IND)
TV umpire: Ivaturi Shivram (IND)
Match referee: Alan Hurst (AUS)
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