India and Sri Lanka have played out a dramatic and remarkable tie in a nail-biting Commonwealth Bank Series encounter at Adelaide Oval on Tuesday.
Click HERE for the Scorecard from the Adelaide Oval
Requiring four to win off the last ball to reel in the 237-run target and with Captain Clutch MS Dhoni on strike facing Lasith Malinga, the Indian skipper scooped the final delivery over extra cover as he and Umesh Yadav scampered through for three runs, the ball being just cut off before reaching the boundary by Upul Tharanga.
The umpires checked upstairs to see if the batsmen ran one run short to add a further twist, but in the end, both teams finished dead-level on 9-236.
It was the first-ever ODI tie between the two nations.
India looked to be cakewalking their way to the target when they required 68 off the final 12 overs with six wickets in the shed, but they fell in a hole thanks to some tight bowling and superb fielding as the match went right down to the wire.
For the second game in succession and fresh off his heroic match-winning knock against Australia at this ground last Sunday, Dhoni (58 not out), who was named Man of the Match, led the chase, but on this occasion he fell one run short of conjuring a remarkable victory.
The Indians struggled to build any sizeable partnerships early and lost wickets at regular intervals but for the second time in three days, the efforts of Gautam Gambhir (91) for most of the evening and Dhoni at the death dominated the batting.
India's chase hit regular roadblocks when Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma each fell for 15.
Tendulkar succumbed trying to punch Nuwan Kulasekara off the back foot through the off-side only to thick-edge a catch through to Kumar Sangakkara behind the stumps.
Kohli, who on 14, became the fourth-fastest batsman to reach the 3000-run ODI milestone, after Sir Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge and Gary Kirsten, added one more run before being trapped lbw by Thisara Perera.
It was game on at 3-94 when Sharma was run out for the third 15 of the innings after fractionally failing to beat Mahela Jayawardene's direct hit at the striker's end after Gambhir caressed spinner Rangana Herath to backward point and called for a quick single that wasn't quite there.
Paceman Malinga was decidedly expensive but he did manage to fashion an important breakthrough when he had Suresh Raina caught behind by Kumar Sangakkara for eight.
The former Sri Lanka captain moved well to his right and took it well from Malinga's leg-side ball which glided off the face of Raina's bat.
Despite the setbacks at the other end, Gambhir batted imperiously, but he did have an ounce of luck along the way.
On 40, he survived a very confident lbw shout off a full Rangana Herath nut which struck the left-hander low on the pad.
But he still raised his half century off 61 balls when he turned Sachithra Senanayake behind square.
Gambhir shared in a 60-run partnership with Dhoni for the fifth wicket and was marching along to a seemingly inevitable 10th ODI ton when, on 91, he became the second run out victim of the innings and the fifth of the match.
Dhoni punched Malinga to mid-on and set off for what would have been a dicey single before abruptly stopping in his tracks. Non-striker Gambhir, who was well down the pitch, spun back around but couldn't beat Kulasekara's direct hit.
On the back of his 92 against Australia on Sunday, it was Gambhir's second unconverted 90-plus tally in the space of three days, the rejuvenated 30-year-old opener still without a century in any form of international cricket since 2010.
When Jadeja (three) played an uppish cover drive which was nicely caught low by a diving Jayawardene off Perera, it was 6-184 and the rate required, well under a run a ball with 12 overs left, had suddenly risen above nine an over.
And, with 24 required off the final two overs, Dhoni needed to produce something special
Irfan Pathan smashed a waist-high Angelo Mathews full-toss - called a no-ball - for six over deep square leg but sacrificed himself the following ball when he was run out for eight at the non-striker's end following a mix-up with Dhoni.
Dhoni clubbed Mathews for a four and a single off the final two balls of the penultimate over to make it nine required off the last six balls, to be bowled by Malinga.
Vinay Kumar was run out off the second-last ball, which meant four were required off the final ball. But Dhoni's three ensured a tie, which was probably a just result.
Earlier, India withstood a sparkling 81 from Dinesh Chandimal to restrict Sri Lanka to 9-236 from their 50 overs after Jayawardene won the toss and elected to bat in perfect, sunny conditions.
Chandimal combined with Jayawardene (43) for a spritely 94-run fourth-wicket stand, easily Sri Lanka's best period of their innings, before both departed eight balls apart to hand the impetus back to India.
The run out of Chandimal, after he was called through by Mathews for what proved a suicidal single, proved pivotal and ultimately proved the difference between Sri Lanka posting what they did (236) or the 270 they threatened when the exciting 22-year-old was firing.
