Jayawardene - proud of his team's improvement.

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Jayawardene: We are getting better and better

Mahela Jayawardene emerged a proud captain after Sri Lanka secured a 51-run win to rise above India in the ODI tri-series standings in Brisbane.

Tuesday saw half-centuries from Tillakaratne Dilshan and Lahiru Thirimanne and Angelo Mathew’s late-order blitz, which brought 49 unbeaten runs from just 37 balls, power the Sri Lankans to the highest score of the tournament thus far - 289 for six.

India’s reply, bar a promising 92-run partnership between Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina, was a substandard affair, eventually ending at 238 all out in the wake of Thisara Perera’s four-wicket haul and Nuwan Kulasekara’s three-for.

While two dropped catches from Dinesh Chandimal blotted an otherwise clinical performance from Jayawardene’s men, the islanders entirely deserved the victory after coming so close in the tied fixture against the same opposition last week.

For their latest triumph, their second on the trot after upstaging Australia in Sydney, the Sri Lankans moved to second on the log with 12 points. The Aussies, meanwhile, sport 14 points and India 11.

“We are getting better and better,” enthused Jayawardene. “The commitment is brilliant and we played very well. We are still making some mistakes, though. We try to execute different gameplans in each game. I think we did it perfectly here. 280-plus was a great score and the bowlers were absolutely brilliant up front.

“The pitch will do a bit more in these conditions, so it is important to not give easy singles. Our bowlers are bowling good areas, hopefully we can keep our heads together in the next few matches and get into the finals, which is our first goal.”

Kulasekara was named Man of the Match for his key figures of three 40 in nine overs. The right-armer was responsible for the important dismissals of Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir in quick succession and later Ravindra Jadeja’s departure. Whereas the specialist batsmen were no match for the seamer’s probing line outside the off-stump, the all-rounder only had himself to blame for chopping a low full toss onto his stumps.

Fellow new-ball bowler Lasith Malinga, was off the boil and fetched plenty of expense across his eight overs to take the shine off his removal of Virender Sehwag off the second ball of India’s pursuit.

“My strength is to swing the ball, and I try to do that in every opportunity,” insisted Kulasekara. “Sachin is a master of cricket and I’m very happy to get his wicket. Our attack is very good, we have Lasith and the other seamers also did well. I rate Lasith as the number one bowler in the world now.”

Defeated skipper Sehwag, leading the side in the absence of captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who earlier this week copped a one-match ban for his team’s second over-rate infringement in 12 months, was left to rue a poor showing from his bowlers at the death of the Sri Lankan innings, Raina and Kohli’s lack of follow-through and his failure at the top of the knock.

Holing out to thirdman after wafting at a wide delivery outside off-stump, Sehwag failed to lead from the front and, with no Dhoni down the order to rectify the chase, victory with 4.5 overs to spare was there for the taking for Sri Lanka.

“The last 10 overs, we didn’t bowl well,” lamented Sehwag. “Raina and Virat put on a good stand but they couldn’t take it on. In this season I got out almost five times at short point and thirdman. I have to work hard in the nets and leave a couple of balls before attacking. We missed Dhoni in this game, if we play to our potential we can do well.”

Australia and Sri Lanka will contest the next game of the series in Hobart on Saturday.