A brilliant 78 from captain Kumar Sangakkara helped inspire Sri Lanka to a crushing 29 run victory over a poorly disciplined Indian side at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur to win the first game of their two game Twenty20 series.

Sangakkara made India pay for a number of dropped catches as Sri Lanka cruised to a mammoth total of 215. Faced with such a large total India started thier reply in style thanks to a fantastic knock by Gautam Gambhir who scored 55 runs from just 26 balls.

India lost Virender Sehwag for just 26 runs early on in the run chase but with MS Dhoni by his side Gambhir looked well on his way to leading India to victory before being bowled by Angelo Matthews.

The lose of Gambhir saw India lose wickets at regular intervals as the middle order collapsed losing four wickets in the space of three overs. Indians only resistance came from Suresh Raina (21) and Ashish Nehra (22) but this saw to little to late.

Earlier after being put into bat by MS Dhoni Sri Lanka got off to a slow start with Tillakaratne Dilshan and veteran Sanath Jayasuriya taking their time to get settled at the crease. The pair enjoyed an opening partnership of 43 before Jayasuriya was caught by Ishant Sharma at third man.

The wicket was Ashok Dinda first in international Twenty20 cricket. With Sangakkara and Dilshan at the crease the runs started to flow for Sri Lanka thanks to some very poor fielding by India.

Dilshan was bowled by Rohit Sharam for 34 but Sangakkara remained at the crease until he was run out off the last ball of the innings and was supported by Mahaela Jayawardene (9), Chamara Kapugedera (47) and Angelo Mathews (15).

Helped by a number of dropped catches Sri Lanka pressed home their advantage and left India with a large run chase for victor