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Sri Lanka crush India by 7 wickets

Sri Lanka’s Farveez Maharoof grabbed 5-42, including a hat-trick, as India were shot out for 209 in the last league match of the Asia Cup on Tuesday.

The right-arm seamer trapped Ravindra Jadeja leg-before, bowled Praveen Kumar and had Zaheer Khan caught behind off successive deliveries in his ninth over at the Rangiri stadium in Dambulla.

The match is a warm-up for Thursday’s final which the two teams will contest after knocking Pakistan and Bangladesh out of the four-nation tournament.

India suffered a major blow when opener Virender Sehwag was ruled out of both matches after sustaining a hamstring injury against Pakistan on Saturday.

Dinesh Karthik, who flew in from Chennai to replace Sehwag, hit 40 off 43 balls after an opening stand of 58 with Gautam Gambhir.

Sri Lanka, who rested three frontline bowlers in Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Kulasekera and Muttiah Muralitharan, reduced India to 110-4 by the 23^rd over.

Rohit Sharma (69) and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (41) retrieved the situation by adding 79 for the fifth wicket, before the Indian captain was run out.

Dhoni’s dismissal triggered a collapse as India slipped from 189-4 to 189-8 in the space of four deliveries as Maharoof sliced through the lower order.

India were all out with 7.3 overs still remaining from their allotted 50.