Yuvraj seals win after wobble

Yuvraj Singh calmed India with a composed half-century against Sri Lanka A © AFP

A fluent half-century from Yuvraj Singh, and defiant batting from the lower order spared Indian blushes as they eked out a three-wicket victory over a strong Sri Lankan A side at the Colts Cricket Club Ground in Colombo. A fair gathering peered through the railings at the tree-fringed venue in Havelock Town as the Indians were given just the sort of test that they needed ahead of the tri-nation tournament that starts on Monday.

Chasing 203 for victory, they slipped from the relative comfort of 128 for 3 to the crisis scoreline of 153 for 7, before Ajit Agarkar's resolute 32, and a doughty knock from Ramesh Powar saw them home with 33 balls to spare. After Nuwan Zoysa had triggered an early slump with the wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, both caught clipping the ball to midwicket, the slow bowlers came to the fore, with Malinga Bandara's legspin and Mohamed Suraj's offbreaks causing hesitancy in the middle of the innings.

Yuvraj, though, carried on as he had for much of last season, stroking the ball sweetly off his pads and crunching some lovely drives through the covers in his 57-ball 61. His 65-run partnership with Rahul Dravid, who made 47 after opening with Tendulkar, set the game up for the Indians after Sehwag's penetrating spell of 3 for 16 restricted the Lankan A side to 202 for 9.

Upul Tharanga continued to mine a rich vein of form with a classy 88, but with the exception of a sedate 31 from Jeevan Mendis, there was little support from the top order. The Indian bowlers - apart from Ajit Agarkar who went for 45 in his seven overs - gave little away and only a late charge from Akalanka Ganegama, who thumped 29 off 27 balls, took the run-rate past four an over.

After all the scrutiny of his recent form, Irfan Pathan could feel satisfied over a 10-over spell that cost just 31, though he would have been less than thrilled with his 13-ball stay in the middle after being sent in at the fall of the first wicket. Several outside the gates had also congregated to watch Mahendra Singh Dhoni - a familiar face on Reebok advertising hoardings here - but despite a trademark loft for six, he could make only 10 as the Indian chase went from cruise to crisis. Rahul Dravid said afterwards that he was reasonably happy with the outing, and with another game pencilled in for tomorrow, the Indians had every reason to be optimistic that it would be all right on the [Wednesday] night.