Images: India vs Sri Lanka, tri-series, final

Put in to the bat after losing the toss, India got off to a disastrous start, as the in-form Gautam Gambhir (0) was out to the third ball of the match.

The openers had given the team decent starts in the tournament, but when it mattered most, Gambhir failed. Nuwan Kulasekara's delivery brushed his pads and rolled back onto the stumps.

Just like Gambhir, Virat Kohli (2) too failed to deliver when it was required the most.

Kohli, who has been in tremendous form of late, was guilty of chasing a wide delivery from Chanka Welagadera and the edge was safely grabbed by wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara.

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (14), who has made a habit of saving India in pressure situations, couldn't steady the sinking ship.

He and Virender Sehwag (42) looked to have settled nerves before he was snapped by Sangakkara off the bowling of Kulasekara.

Yuvraj Singh (0) too failed to resurrect the Indian innings, as he was caught in the slips by Thilan Samaraweera off Welegadera.

Virender Sehwag's breezy innings too came to a tame end when he threw his wicket away to Kulasekara, while trying to chop the ball over the wicketkeeper's head.

With India looking down the barrel at 60-5, it was up to the youngsters to steady the innings.

Raina (106) and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja (38) played sensibly to help India recover from an embarrassing position.

Both initially played some quiet overs before opening shoulders to bring India back in the match.

The duo shared a 106-run partnership before Jadeja was unlucky to be adjudged leg before wicket off Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Raina held fort for India as he completed a well-deserved century. The southpaw mixed caution with aggression in his 115-ball innings, which provided their bowlers something to bowl at.

With India taking the batting Power Play in the 44th over they had a good chance to cross 250-run mark.

But Sri Lanka first picked Harbhajan Singh (11) and Zaheer Khan (16), before claiming the dangerous Raina, who was cleaned up by Welegadera.

Thissira Perera then bowled S Sreesanth (4) and India were all out for 245 in 48.2 overs.

 Ashish Nehra was unbeaten with two runs off three balls.

India were off to a good start as Ashish Nehra picked up dangerous Upul Tharanga (0) in the third ball of the Sri Lankan innings.

Nehra bowled a good line and length and produced a gem of a delivery, which got the edge of the lefthander and was neatly taken by Virat Kohli in the second slips.

Nehra, however had to limp off the field with a groin injury.

Tillakaratne Dilshan (49) and Kumar Sangakkara (55) then steadied the innings for Sri Lanka.

Both of them made full use of the wayward Indian bowling, particularly that of S Sreesanth, who was hit boundaries early on.

Zaheer Khan, who came in after Nehra had to walk off the field, too was rusty in the initial spell, giving easy runs.

To make the matter worse, the fielding was a big let down as they gave away easy runs.

The duo put on added 92 runs to put the chase back on track at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium.

With the pacers going for more than six runs per-over, skipper MS Dhoni was forced to turn to the spinners.

Dhoni pressed in service Yuvraj Singh and then collaborated with him to remove the dangerous Dilshan off the left-arm spinner's first delivery.

Harbhajan Singh removed Sangakkara and Thilina Kandamby (18) and in between, Jadeja castled Thilan Samaraweera (27) to squeeze the run flow.

The run out of Suraj Randiv (17) meant that the game headed for a tight finish.

But a calm Mahela Jayawardene (71 n.o.) ensured that Sri Lanka reached the target without much of a hiccup.

Jayawardene brought in all his experience, pacing his innings brilliantly, to see the Lankans get over the line with nine balls to spare.

Jayawardene's brilliant innings included five hits to the fence.

Thissira Perea was the other not out batsman on 6.