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Sri Lanka 215 for 5 (Sangakkara 78*, Kapugedera 47) beat India 186 for 9 (Gambhir 55) by 29 runs

Sri Lanka 215 for 5 (Sangakkara 78*, Kapugedera 47) v India

Kumar Sangakkara hits a six over midwicket, India v Sri Lanka, 1st Twenty20, Nagpur, December 9, 2009
Kumar Sangakkara equalled the record for the fastest fifty by a Sri Lankan © AFP
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Players/Officials: Ashok Dinda | Chinthaka Jayasinghe | Muthumudalige Pushpakumara
Matches: India v Sri Lanka at Nagpur
Series/Tournaments: Sri Lanka tour of India
Teams: India | Sri Lanka

Kumar Sangakkara hit his highest Twenty20 score, a classy 37-ball 78, as Sri Lanka charged to 215 in the first Twenty20 game in Nagpur. Chamara Kapugedera pitched in with a lovely cameo and India helped Sri Lanka's cause by dropping five regulation chances, including two off the openers.

Sangakkara, though, stole the show. There was just one dot ball till he reached his fifty - from 21 deliveries, the quickest for Sri Lanka - but it wasn't a conventional Twenty20 knock in which the batsman going hell for leather. There weren't many ugly shots and anything unconventional was designed with the field in mind.

His innings was sparked off in the ninth over by the spin of Ojha. He chipped the first delivery he faced from Ojha over mid-on, swept the next to the boundary and lifted the third for a six over long-on. There were more classy strikes, the highlight being a chipped shot over mid-on to a length delivery from the debutant Ashok Dinda. His predetermined shots also came off perfectly: when he shuffled to the off side, the ball was invariably so full that it was easily lapped around the corner; when he moved outside leg, he flat-batted short-of-length deliveries over mid-on or mid-off and it all looked easy.

It wasn't a solo show from him, though. He found support from his partners at various points of the innings. If it was Tillakaratne Dilshan at the start, unfurling a couple of peachy on-the-up hits, it was Chamara Kapugedera in the middle and Angelo Mathews at the very end. Kapugedera was fluent against everyone but he reserved his best for Aashish Nehra, looting 18 runs from the 19th over with four boundaries to all parts of the ground - a punch over cover, a pull, a slice and a cut over point - that reflected the bowler's poor lines.

All this after India started well, with four tight initial overs, only for their bowling and fielding to disintegrate under pressure. Nehra and Ishant Sharma kept getting it to skid from back of a length and cramped up the openers for room but the fielding gave way first before the bowling too buckled under the assault. Yuvraj reprieved Jayasuriya when on 2, dropping a sitter at point off Ishant.

In return, Jayasuriya went berserk in the fifth over, bowled by Nehra, taking him for 22 runs with five boundaries, including two lap-shots past the short fine leg fielder that showed up the bowler in poor light. Dilshan was dropped too, with Ishant missing a straightforward return chance, and he too took full toll. Though the openers didn't go on to make big scores, they had broken the shackles and set the platform for Sangakkara to play a gem.