Monday, August 25 2008 -- Deciding to bat after winning the toss at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, India registered a 237 run target and hunted down the Sri Lankans at 204 runs to win the third match of the 5 match ODI series by 33 runs. The Indians who leveled the series in their previous match now lead the series by one win with two more matches to be played.

After getting to a slow start and loosing their opening batsmen Gambhir and Yuvraj for 8 and 12 runs, Raina, captain Dhoni and Rohit Sharma were the ones who showed temperament and stayed long enough to ensure a total of 237 runs. With a not so impressive total to defend Zaheer Khan was the man who once again rose up to the occasion for the Indians teamed by Praveen Kumar. The pace couples claimed 3 and 2 wickets respectively. For the Sri Lankans it was the captain Jayawardene who played an amazing 94 run knock which went to vain as wickets kept falling at the other end.

Indian captain MS Dhoni was named as the Man of the Match for his 76 runs in 80 balls. Dhoni who seems to have found his way around Sri Lankan menace, Mendis, said, “It is more about him (Mendis). If he bowls a bad ball then punish him and build pressure on him. If you continue to defend him then you know he will also be on top” “It is very important that whenever he bowls a bad ball we get runs so that you know he gets under a bit of pressure”

Sri Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene who was disappointed with the casual batting performance that his team displayed said, “I thought we were a bit casual in the game, we gave away a couple of soft wickets. I don't think we deserved to win the game because we made too many mistakes in the game especially with the bat” “The bowlers bowled really well upfront, picked up wickets and 225-235 is a good score to chase down. But we lost four wickets in 15 overs. From there it was a pretty uphill task, we came close but not good enough”