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It seems that it was a day of brothers, earlier in the day two Hussey brothers helped Australia to beat New Zealand and level the series and in the late evening two Pathan’s Irfan and Yusuf helped their team to register a thrilling three wickets victory over the Sri Lankan in twenty20 international in Colombo.

Chasing a challenging total of 172 runs for victory India looks on course of winning the game easily but M.Bandara and S.Jayasurya brought Sri Lanka right back into the match by picking up four wickets between them and giving just 24 runs in six over. Indians were reduced to 115/7 at the end of 15^th over and looking down and out of the match. But two Pathan brothers have different ideas as they plundered 59 runs of just 25 balls to guide India home with four balls remaing to be bowled.

India were down in the dumps at 115/7 needing another 57 runs in the last five overs with just three wickets in hand. Then came the late twist in the evening when Yusuf Pathan clobbered M.Bandara for two huge sixes and one fast furious boundaries to collect 17 runs of five balls in the 16^th over of Indian inning to minimize the pressure mounting on the Indians. Before that Bandara was the pick of the Sri Lankan bowlers, claiming three wickets.

Thereafter it was Irfan Pathan who taken the responsibility of scoring runs and hit two huge sixes and two fours to snatch the unbelievable victory from the hands of Sri Lanka. He first clobbered 13 runs in the 19^th over bowled by Dilhara Fernando with one flat six over midwicket and then crsip boundary over extra cover. Needing just five in the last over Irfan Pathan smashed second ball of the over for six to registered a thrilling victory over Sri Lanka by three wickets. In the end Irfan scored 33 runs of 16 balls and his brother Yusuf Pathan score 20 runs of 10 balls.

Earlier during run chase Suresh Raina (35 runs of 27 balls) and Yuvraj Singh (32 runs of 21 balls) played useful hand after the quick dismissal of both the openers. Virendra Sehwag was run out by C.Kapugedara for 1 run and G.Gambhir out on very next ball for 13 runs caught on the bowling of T.Tushara.

Earlier Sri Lankan Captain Dilshan won the toss and decided to bat first. T.Dilshan scored 61 runs from 47 balls to help Sri Lanka to score a chalalenging total of 171/4 in their 20 overs.

Sri Lanka started well with openers S.Jayasurya (33 runs of 17 balls) and T.Dilshan (61 runs of 47 balls) both went on to put blistering 59 runs in just 36 balls. T.Dilshan made full use of drop chance made by I.Pathan in the very first over of Sri Lanka inning on the bowling of Zaheer Khan.

However Irfan Pathan manages to break the partnership when he gets S.Jayasurya out for 33 runs. At start Sri Lanka were going at more than 10 runs per over but Indian slow spinners put the breaks on scoring. Both spinner Y.Pathan and R.Jadeja bowled really well and conceeded just 52 runs in their quota of four overs each.

Yusuf Pathan was most successful bowlers for the Indian as he manages to pick up two wickets. While I.Sharma and Irfan Pathan picked up one wicket each.

Y.Pathan is declared Man of the Match for his superb bowling spell of 23/2 and blistering knock of 20 runs of 10 balls to guide India home by three wickets.

Match Summary

Sri Lanka – 171/4 in 20 Overs

T.Dilshan- 61 S.Jayasurya –33

Y.Pathan- 4-0-23-2 I.Pathan-4-0-34-1

India – 174/7 in 19.2 Overs

S.K.Raina-35 I.Pathan- 33*

M.Bandara- 4-0-32-3 T.Thusara-3-0-27-1

Watch Highlights of India Vs Sri Lanka Twenty20