Scorecard
Commentary
Sri Lanka fall short in Colombo
A strangling performance by India's spinners turned the match and gave India a sniff of a come from behind series win.
Sri Lanka batted first, and apart from two solid partnerships in the middle order, lost wickets at regular intervals with Harbhajan Singh taking 4-52 on what seemed a perfect batting pitch.
Kumar Sangakkara was the stand out performer with a silky 93 runs for 166 deliveries faced. Silva was a distant second with 43 as the Sri Lankans compiled 286 runs from 90 overs.
In reply, the Indians fared nearly identically to their subcontinent counterparts. Sehwag and Pathan both passed fifty on a pitch that was being molested by the bowlers. Chaminda Vaas's accuracy picked him up 5 wickets with the rest being shared.
India ended up 12 runs short of Sri Lanka's first innings total, with extras being the 4th highest scorer.
Any hope Sri Lanka had of making a big total to defend withdrew rapidly as Irfan Pathan, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh worked well in tandem to take 8 scalps between them. There were no real stand outs for the Lankans, with 4 (arguably 5) batsman making starts but no one going higher than 35 (Tharanga).
India's second innings was almost like their first, which worked to their advantage as they cruised to the target set for them, despite losing four wickets. Rahul Dravid played a real captains knock to ensure they made it by remaining 55 not out off 180 balls to see India home and leveling the series.
Sri Lanka 1st Innings 286 all out
Sangakkara 93, Silva 46
Singh 4-52, Patel 2-29
India 1st Innings 274 all out
Sehwag 74, Pathan 51
Vaas 5-72, Muralitharan 2-32
Sri Lanka 2nd Innings 186 all out
Tharanga 35, Sangakkara 32
Singh 3-31, Pathan 3-36
India 2nd Innings 200 for 4
Dravid 55*, Jaffer 42
Vaas 3-58, Muralitharan 1-49
India won by 6 wkts.
MOTM: Harbhajan Singh