Ashish Nehra stings Sri Lanka

India's under-fire seam attack came good when it mattered, setting up MS Dhoni's side's fourth win in seven tournament finals, a statistic that almost makes mockery of India's abysmal record in finals. The conditions did support them as they were bowling under the lights in Dambulla, but it was a huge improvement from two nights ago: all three of Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra bowled tight lines, all three got movement both ways and extracted extra bounce, all three got wickets.

Nehra proved to be the deadliest of three, repeatedly making the ball land on the seam, also regaining his special ability of getting swing with back-of-a-length deliveries. Two of his three wickets were Sri Lanka's best batsmen, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. The third was one of the smarter ones, Angelo Mathews.

Jayawardene and Sangakkara would have sighed in relief to see Zaheer (5-1-17-1) off, but it was short-lived. With his second ball, Nehra nearly got Jayawardene lbw, the ball swinging in. In his second over, he got extra bounce and away movement, getting that edge. At 49 for 3 in the 14th over, Sri Lanka were under extreme pressure. Which could perhaps explain Mathews' loose shot two balls later, edging a short and wide delivery.

Nehra's swing continued, Sangakkara tried to do something with the only delivery that looked too short, it bounced too high and Sangakkara, too, was gone, in the 16th over, which made it three wickets for eight runs since Nehra's introduction. Praveen played his part from the other end, bowling nine overs of steady away swing from left-hand batsmen for 29 runs.

Nehra produced perhaps his best deliveries for Chamara Kapugedera, getting vicious swing from back of a length, hitting him repeatedly in the thigh-rib region. In his fifth over, Nehra provided some respite, giving Kandamby both width and the angle down the leg side.