The Great Game Called Cricket...

Gambhir revealed being dismissed cheaply in the previous matches spurred him on to a good knock in the fourth onedayer against SL.

Gambhir scored an unbeaten 150 as India surpassed Sri Lanka's total of 315 for six with just under two overs to spare.

The left-hander added 224 for the third wicket with Virat Kohli (107), who made his maiden ODI century.

Gambhir was run out cheaply in the second ODI and made 32 in the last match, but was pleased with his effort at Eden Gardens.

"I was pretty unfortunate in the last couple of innings but once I crossed the half-century mark here, I kept telling myself to keep going," he said.

"It was important to win this series and I am happy I played a good knock. It was important to build a partnership because we always knew the dew would be a factor on this ground.

"When we played South Africa the last time we were here, Graeme Smith got a hundred and the bowlers had great difficulty handling a wet ball.

"We knew that if we got a good partnership it would be easy for us once the dew kicked in."

Gambhir was named man of the match but declined the award and nominated Kohli instead.

"When you have someone at the other end who can attack the bowling, especially when you lose early wickets, it takes the pressure of you," Gambhir said of his Dehli team-mate.

"With Kohli attacking I was able to take my time to settle down. We told ourselves we needed to stay together until at least the 35th over and then try to force things in the third powerplay.

"But the way we batted, we didn't need the powerplay at that stage because we were ahead of the target we had set for ourselves.

"We had planned to score 70 in the last 10 overs, but we were well ahead."

Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara said his bowlers had let the team down.

"We started off really well, Tharanga batting through the innings and the others batting around him," he said. "Once you get 315 on the board you expect your bowlers to really do the job for you.

"But with our bowling we were either too short or too full on either side of the wicket.

"The dew perhaps made it difficult for Sanath (Jayasuriya) and Suraj (Randiv) and (Tillakaratne) Dilshan when he came on, but I thought the fast bowlers should have been more disciplined."

Sri Lanka have been severely hit by injuries but Sangakkara was pleased with the effort from the replacements.

"We had so many debutants on this tour and all of them have really stepped up," Sangakkara said.

"Some of our best bowling has been from the debutants and that really augurs well. I have toured India since 2003 and I think we have been the most competitive in the one-dayers on this tour."