Having dropped that sharp but eminently catchable chance, Chandana was forced to watch as Ganguly and Dinesh Mongia went about the task of stabilising the innings. They could do so without undue concern about the run rate because of the low target. However, the batsmen were also aware that the ball was still seaming about.

Lateral movement had little to do with the dismissal of Mongia when the score had reached 30 in the 13th over. He shaped to turn Vaas to leg, but got a leading edge that sent the ball ballooning to Sanath Jayasuriya's right at mid-off where he held a good catch low down. Vaas ended the over with a loud appeal against Sachin Tendulkar as the ball narrowly missed the edge of the bat but brushed the thigh on its way through to Romesh Kaluwitharana. It was a cracking delivery, but a little high for an lbw decision.

Gangulay's luck finally ran out in the next over, with Kaluwitharana involved again. Ganguly edged Pramodya Wickramasinghe to slip where Mahela Jayawardene only parried the catch, but straight to the wicket-keeper who completed the catch. Suddenly the Sri Lankan total took on a greater magnitude and, not for the first time in his career, much rested on the shoulders of Tendulkar.

So often in the past he has carried the team through whatever crisis it faced, but this time it was not to be. He chipped an easy catch to Fernando at backward point off Chandana only to see the fielder make an awful mess of it. Both Sri Lankans would have been all too aware of each other's feelings. However, Fernando was brought into the attack next over and his first ball brought about the end of Tendulkar as he pushed a catch into the covers.

As ever when a batsman of Tendulkar's stature goes cheaply, nerves were now jangling. They were not eased when Rahul Dravid trine to turn Fernando to leg, and sent a leading edge into the covers into the hands of Russel Arnold. Sri Lankan celebrations were truncated when it was noticed that the umpire had signalled a no ball for over-stepping.

At the halfway stage of the innings, India were 76 for 4 - the lowest in the series by a margin – and the game, and Sri Lanka's hopes, were still very much alive.

After Marvan Aytapattu and Mahela Jayawardene had added 84 for the third wicket, albeit from 118 balls, both batsmen were dismissed in the space of nine balls bowled by Anil Kumble. With the score on 125, Jayawardene gave himself room to hit Kumble inside-out over the covers only to give Ashish Nehra a catch at long off.

Atapattu went to his fifty from 70 balls, but before his score had advanced he was beaten in the flight to be bowled by Kumble with a ball that might have just come back into the batsman off the pitch.

There was an obvious need for Sri Lanka to rebuild once again, even though their scoring rate was well below what they might have wanted. However, Avishka Gunawardene tried to pull Zaheer Khan to mid-wicket but only succeeded in offering a simple catch to backward point, Thilan Samaraweera slashed what might charitably be described as a drive to slip and Russel Arnold sacrificed his wicket. A push to backward point, a hesitation and a throw from Yuvraj Singh to the bowler's end left him stranded out of the frame.

Chaminda Vaas slashed and thrashed to some effect, hitting four boundaries from 20 balls in his innings of 26 before one more slog to deep extra cover brought about his downfall. Upul Chandana tamely chipped Ajit Agarkar to mid-off in his first back and Pramodya Wickramasinghe was run out by Yuvraj again to bring the innings to a premature and most unsatisfactory close with India needing to score at just four runs an over to win.

Jayasuriya continued in the form he had re-discovered against England at Headingley. The second ball he received from Zaheer Khan was short and very wide of the off stump. The Sri Lankan captain launched himself at it with a cut that took the ball several rows back into the crowd at point for an extraordinary six.

At the other end, Ashish Nehra was finding considerable lateral movement with the ball and had Jayasuriya dropped at second slip by Dinesh Mongia as he slashed yet again. However, Nehra got his revenge when Jayasuriya again waved his bat outside the off stump only to get a bottom edge that dragged the ball onto his wicket.

Three overs later, Ajit Agarkar was introduced into the attack and with his first ball induced Kaluwitharana to chase a wide one and edge to the wicket-keeper. Kaluwitharana looks a mere shadow of the batsmen who terrorised attacks a few years ago and is doing little for the Sri Lankan cause.

It was left to Atapattu and Jayawardene to apply more conventional technique to the art of batting as they revived the innings with a fifty partnership with elegant rather than excessive strokes to stabilise the position for Sri Lanka and so provide a platform for the assault that will no doubt come in due course.