India end Sri Lanka's hopes

Nehra celebrates taking the wicket of Jayasuriya

NatWest Series, Edgbaston
India 188-6 (48.1 overs) beat Sri Lanka 187 (48.2 overs) by four wickets

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Sri Lanka's chances of qualifying for the final disappeared as they suffered their fourth successive defeat in the triangular competition.

They can equal England's total of 10 points if they win their next two matches with maximum bonus points, but England would still go through having beaten Sri Lanka twice already in the tournament.

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India's bowlers took advantage of some early moisture in the pitch to bowl Sri Lanka out for 187 and Rahul Dravid saw his side to the brink of victory with a half century.

Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan conceded just four boundaries in the first 15 overs after Indian captain Sourav Ganguly won the toss and elected to field.

Atapattu made a patient 50

Sanath Jayasuriya slashed a six over point but chopped a Nehra delivery onto his stumps that was too close to cut after scoring 22.

Ajit Agarkar then picked up the wicket of Romesh Kaluwitharana with his first delivery for the second time in as many matches against Sri Lanka.

Marvan Atapattu and Mahela Jayawardene repaired Sri Lanka's innings with a patient stand of 84, but leg spinner Anil Kumble deceived both batsmen in consecutive overs.

Jayawadene (36) holed out to Nehra going for a big hit and Atapattu, who scored 50 from 73 balls with five boundaries, was bowled through the gate by a googly.

Khan returned to snare Avishka Gunawardene and Nehra ended with impressive figures of 2-28 after Thilan Samaraweera edged behind.

Chaminda Vaas chipped in with a breezy 26 from 20 balls but Sri Lanka lost eight wickets for 62 runs.

Vaas took a wicket with his first ball

India lost a wicket with the first ball of their innings for the second time in successive matches when a Vaas inswinger bowled Virender Sehwag.

Vaas struck again to remove Dinesh Mongia and Pramodya Wickramasinghe found the edge of Ganguly's bat with Jayawardene parrying the ball for Kaluwitharan to take the catch.

Dilhara Fernando dropped Sachin Tendulkar at gully but made up for his mistake by deceiving the batsman with a slower ball and Atapattu took the catch at cover.

But Dravid and Yuvraj Singh ended Sri Lanka's hopes with a patient stand of 91 before Yuvraj, on 37, fenced another Fernando slower ball to gully.

Fernando ended with figures of 2-22, but crucially bowled a no-ball to give Dravid an extra life on nine, when the batsman was caught off a leading edge.

Dravid took advantage to hit 64 from 91 balls, including a six and five fours, but was run out with India in sight of victory.

Fittingly, Sri Lanka gifted India victory with a wide.

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India: SC Ganguly (capt), AB Agarkar, R Dravid, M Kaif, Z Khan, A Kumble, D Mongia, A Nehra, V Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, SR Tendulkar.

Sri Lanka: S T Jayasuriya (Capt), R S Kaluwitharana (Wkt) M S Atapattu, D P M D Jayawardene, R P Arnold, T T Samaraweera D A Gunawardene, U D U Chandana, W P U J C Vaas, G P Wickramasinghe, C R D Fernando.

Umpires: NA Mallender and SA Bucknor (West Indies)

Third umpire: P Willey

Match referee: M Procter (South Africa)