Sri Lanka made mincemeat of India in the fifth game of the Micromax Cup tri-series that was played at Dambulla on Sunday. The hosts won by eight wickets and with almost 35 overs to spare, as Thissara Perera ran through the Indian batting and captured five wickets.
India won the toss and decided to bat first, a decision that seemed to backfire big time. For starters, it was Nuwan Kulasekera who sent back Virender Sehwag, declared out LBW by Kumar Dharmasena, to an incoming delivery. The replays showed that the ball would have, at best, clipped the leg-stump, and that meant that the decision could have gone either way.
However, if this was a 50-50 decision, then there were more to follow. First, Dinesh Karthik was given out caught behind by the same umpire, when the replays showed no such click, while Suresh Raina was also given the marching orders by Dharmasena when he hadn’t nicked it. Fortunately, Raina had earlier been given not-out when there was a clear snick and so things evened out – at least in his case. 
MS Dhoni barely lasted a few deliveries, while Rohit Sharma had earlier been sent back for 11 as the Indians collapsed quickly to 71/5. Yuvraj Singh was the only recognised batsman remaining, and it was expected that Ravindra Jadeja would assist him in the recovery but nothing of that sort happened. Perera continued to run through the Indian batting, as he first had Jadeja caught in the gully and then Praveen Kumar hit one straight at the mid-off fielder. 
Yuvraj was the only batsman who crossed 12, and looked good for his 38 before he was sent back by the umpire-bowler combination. Asad Rauf declared Yuvraj out LBW with the ball clearly missing the off-stump. The Indians were all out for 103 in the 34th over, with Perera ending with 5/28 off his 7.4 overs.
Sri Lanka batted for eight overs before the lunch break and smashed 63/0 in those overs. Mahela Jayawardene was promoted to open the innings and he partnered T Dilshan at the top.
After lunch, the Sri Lankans went after the Indian bowling as they tried to achieve the target as quickly as they could. Ishant Sharma did get a couple of wickets off successive balls, as he sent back both the openers, but the pair of Kumar Sangakkara and Upul Tharanga completed the formalities.
Perera’s five wicket haul won him the man of the match, whereas the win took Sri Lanka into the finals of the tournament. It also means that the winner of the India-New Zealand game will play Lanka in the final.