Cricket Asia Cup: Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli Carry India Past Sri Lanka

After being whitewashed 4-0 in the Test series in England and Australia, and finishing a distant third in last month's Tri-Series, most people doubted India had much chance in the 2012 Asia Cup.

In just one game, they might have changed the minds of most of their detractors.

India cruised to a 50-run victory over Sri Lanka in Dhaka, thanks in large part to dominant innings from Gautam Gambhir (100) and Virat Kohli (108).

The former and current vice-captains put on a partnership of 205 for the second wicket, and helped India recover from the early loss of Sachin Tendulkar (6) to end 304 for three.

To say Gambhir and Kohli have been hot lately would be an understatement.

In six of his last 13 innings, Kohli has scored six half-centuries and three centuries. Among them is his famous unbeaten 133 against Sri Lanka, which at least delayed India's elimination in the Tri-Series.

Gambhir has, in his last seven matches, reached 50 four times. That's reasonably impressive in itself but even more so when you consider that three of those half-centuries have been scores of at least 90.

Perhaps it was no surprise then that, given the chance, they ended up dominating the match. 

It could have gone so differently, though.

Dismissing Sachin Tendulkar for six was a great start. Sri Lanka would most likely have won the match if they had followed that up by sending Gambhir back to the pavillion too.

They had the chance to do just that but Dinesh Chandimal dropped him when he was on just 37.

The pair fell within two runs of each other, leaving India on 226 for three.

But an inspired fourth-wicket partnership of 78 from Suresh Raina (30 off 17) and skipper MS Dhoni (46 off 26) carried India to an intimidating 304.

Still, this is a loaded Sri Lankan lineup and even breaking the record for the highest-ever target set at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium didn't mean India was safe.

The islanders were well-placed at the start of their batting power play in the 36th over. At 196 for three, they needed 109 from 90 balls. Kumar Sangakkara was cruising on 65 and Lahiru Thiramanne had started his innings well on 27.

On the very first ball of the power play, though, Sangakkara fell into Dhoni's trap and was easily caught at deep mid-wicket.

That set the tone for the rest of the innings, as the tail failed to put up a decent fight.

Thiramanne fell two runs later, no other batsman made more than 20 and Sri Lanka lost their last seven wickets for just 58 runs.

The Indian bowling attack was surprisingly good. Irfan Pathan (4-32) put up his best numbers in four years and was responsible for the key wickets of both openers, Mahela Jayawardene (78 off 59) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (7 off 9).

Vinay Kumar and Ravichandran Ashwin each took three wickets, the latter giving up just over four runs an over in the process, in what was probably India's best all-round performance since last year's World Cup.