Sri Lanka beat India in the fifth game of the Micromax Cup in Zimbabwe by beating them by six wickets to enter the final of the tournament. In the process, India were sent out of the tournament, having lost their third game out of the four they played. 
Sri Lanka invited the Indians into bat after they had won the toss, and the slow pitch meant that the Indian start, though better than what it was in the previous game could not get to the levels which were required to go up to. Naman Ojha, who was replacing Murali Vijay as the opener was lbw to Nuwan Kulasekera early, whereas Dinesh Karthik’s travails at the crease were ended by Thisara Perera, as India slumped to 41/2 in the tenth over. 
Yusuf Pathan was sent at number four after it had been felt that he was wasted down the order and he did not disappoint. Together, with Virat Kohli, the Indian batting shone in that brief period that Pathan was at the crease, as the captain also decided to take the batting powerplay. The partnership added 84 runs for the third wicket and at a good rate, but once Pathan was out, the scoring became more difficult.
Kohli did make his half century, but it was a rather slow 95-ball 68. The Indian problems were compounded by the fact that none of the rest of the batsmen, who got going and it took the off-spinner R Ashwin to get a few in the end. This propelled the total to 268/9 in the fifty overs which meant the Indians needed to restrict the Lankans to 214 to win a bonus point.
As it turned out, the Lankan batting was aggressive right from the start. Although Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga played cameos, the stage was set for Dinesh Chandimal to get to a rather matured, and calm century, whilst getting support from Chamara Kapugedera at the other end.
The Indian bowlers tried hard, but in the end, the inexperience came through and the Lankans emerged winners by six wickets and with ten balls to spare.