COLOMBO: Gautam Gambhir top-scored with a valiant 65 but the rest of the batsmen failed miserably as India were bowled out for a paltry 138 in just 33.3 overs.

India started off pretty well reaching 31 for no loss in 3.5 overs. But then a superb caught and bowled by Thisara Perera opened the floodgates. And before one knew it, India were 41-4. The wicket wasn’t particularly quick and Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina play on while the other batsmen simply gave their wickets away.

After Gambhir, the second highest run-scorer in the Indian team was R Ashwin with 21, followed by Sehwag who got 15 and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who made 11. No one else scored more than 10.

Kohli’s last 6 innings have yielded 597 runs and it was a great run of form but he failed to get going today. Maybe, the rest of the batsmen were depending too much on him. Especially against the Sri Lankans as the right-hander had scored three consecutive centuries against them.

For the Sri Lankans, Perera was superb. And at one point, had bowling figures of 3 wickets in 3 overs without conceding a run. Lasith Malinga (2-36), Angelo Matthews (3-14) supported him well as India were quite literally crushed. AGENCIES