As they have right through the series, India’s batsmen struggled on a pitch where the ball stopped on them and rendered shot-making difficult. A disciplined performance from Sri Lanka’s medium-pacers ensured none of the batsmen were comfortable, though Virat Kohli battled to his maiden half-century.

 Mahendra Singh Dhoni won his fourth straight toss and chose to bat but the openers made a slow start – only four boundaries coming in the first 10 overs. Kohli survived a couple of early chances: on 6, he opened his bat for an outside edge that raced away for a streaky boundary, and on 10 he closed the face too early for the ball to balloon just wide of Sanath Jayasuriya at mid-off. He settled down after that, striking a couple of pleasing square drives for four off Chaminda Vaas in the seventh over.

 At the other end, Gambhir was starved of the strike but was full of confidence, walking down the track to the faster bowlers even though Kumar Sangakkara was standing up. He faced just 12 balls in the first eight overs and decided to take risks to up the run-rate – an unconvincing across-the-line heave brought him his first boundary. He was dismissed soon after, smashing a wide delivery from Nuwan Kulasekara straight to backward point.

That brought Yuvraj Singh to the crease for a short, troubled and runless stay. Chaminda Vaas became the fourth man to take 400 wickets in ODIs when Yuvraj was too early on an offcutter and edged it to short midwicket.

Kohli unleashed some wristy shots to keep the runs flowing but soon paid the price for playing away from his body, an inside edge on to his stumps giving Thilan Thushara a wicket in his first over. Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni then kept the bowlers at bay with Raina, in particular, negotiating the threat of Ajantha Mendis with ease