India made mess of a brilliant start, as they just managed to scrape through to a narrow 33-run win in the third cricket one-dayer to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series, in Colombo on Sunday.

Lankan skipper Mahela Jayawardene raked up a sensational 94-run knock and brought his team close to the doors of an incredible victory but could not finish the game in his team's favour, as the hosts' innings folded at 204 in 49 overs.

After putting up 237 on board, India had the Lankans on the mat as the hosts were reduced to 94 for seven at one stage but visitors dropped as many as four catches to put themselves in an embarrassing situation in the flood lit affair.

A sloppy fielding allowed Jayawardene - dropped once and Thilan Thushara - dropped twice - to stitch an 81-run stand, raising hopes of a Lankan win at R Premadasa stadium.

Indian strike bowler Zaheer Khan came to the rescue of his team when he bowled Thushara (30) with a yorker but tension was yet to evaporate from Indian faces as Jaywardene was still at the wicket.

The Lankan skipper departed when he chipped one off Munaf Patel and Praveen Kumar this time made no mistake in holding on to the chance, missing out on a well deserved century. Yet, he succeeded in teaching a few cricketing lessons to the Indian team.

Early during the Lankan chase Khan and Praveen Kumar produced a devastating spell of seam bowling to put India on the victory path.

Kumar and Khan shared five wickets between them after their skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni led from front with his 76-run knock to help India put a fighting total on the board.

Fielding woes

Jayawardene, dropped by Yuvraj Singh at 75 off Patel, hit six fours and one six in his defiant knock as he waged a lone battle from one end and saw his teammates, barring Thushara, departing one after another from the other.

Thushara, after being dropped by Rohit Sharma in slip and by S Badrinath at the long on, did his bit in Lankan's losing cause helping himself with two boundaries.

Earlier, the pace duo of Khan (3/23) and Kumar (2/62) had squeezed the life out rival batting line up by their amazing discipline and accuracy as they kept a tight line and bowled wicket to wicket. Patel claimed three wickets, while off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and part time bowler Yuvraj chipped in with one wicket each.

Opening the bowling for India, Kumar posed questions straight away, beating explosive Sanath Jayasuriya off the seam movement a couple of times.

Kumar was rewarded for the good work when Jayasuriya offered a low catch in covers but was dropped by Virat Kohli, who went down to his knees and the shot crashed to the boundary after kissing the tips of Kohli's fingers.

The Meerut paceman, however, had the last laugh when the left-hander edged one in the hands of stumper Dhoni.

Khan, bowling with good pace, was not far behind as he plotted the fall of other opener Kumar Sangakkara with a beautiful in swinger. He trapped Sangakkara (9) with a gem of a delivery and umpire Billy Doctrove had no hesitation in raising his finger.

Kapugedara, who got off to the mark with an elegant cover drive, hit Kumar for a mid-wicket six trying to break the shackles. But Kumar got the revenge two balls later when he caught him plumb and the umpire issued his marching orders.

However, there was no end to the woes of Lankans as Munaf Patel dealt a sever blow to the hosts when he had Dilshan caught behind, leaving his captain with the lower order.

Harbhajan Singh stunned the capacity crowd when he castled Chaminda Vaas with a quick delivery.

Earlier, Dhoni played a captain's knock of 76 runs to rescue India from a mid-innings collapse. Indian top-order struggled to be among runs but thanks to Dhoni's crucial partnerships with Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma, India were able to get past the 200-run mark after electing to bat.

India though handled their new nemesis Ajantha Mendis (3/56) well and scored runs off the mystery bowler comfortably but for his last two overs when Mendis almost got a hat-trick.

Dhoni, en route to his 23rd one-day half-century, shared a 54-run stand with Raina (53) for the fifth wicket and then weaved a crucial 67-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Sharma (32).

The teams:

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, S Badrinath, Praveen Kumar, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel.

Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Chamara Silva, Chamara Kapugedera, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Kulasekara, Thilan Thushara, Ajantha Mendis, Muttiah Muralitharan.