Adelaide, Feb 19 Kumar Sangakkara played the familiar role of a saviour as his splendid century guided Sri Lanka to a competitive score of 238 for six in a crucial tri-series encounter against India here today.

The left-hander smashed 128, his seventh ODI century, and put on 153 runs for the third wicket with his skipper Mahela Jayawardene (71) after the duo came together with the score reading six for two in the third over.

Sangakkara walked on to the crease in the first over itself and stayed till the penultimate over as he carted 12 fours around the Adelaide Oval while facing 156 deliveries.

Jayawardene faced 99 balls and hit four fours and a six.

The captain departed in the 37th over, a hard cruel dismissal, when bowler Praveen Kumar intercepted a drive from Sangakkara which then deflected on to the non-striker's end with Jayawardene out of his crease.

It was not the only such dismissal for Sri Lanka as opener Sanath Jayasuriya had fallen in a similar manner in the third over when he found himself out of crease after Munaf Patel deflected a shot in his follow-through on to the stumps.

Sri Lanka were in dire straits when the two senior pros got together and gradually got the innings back on rails.

The two almost completely concentrated on protecting their wickets in the initial overs as the three powerplays of 20 overs yielded only 60 runs. The 100 of the innings was up only in the 28th over of the innings.

Sangakkara had a huge slice of luck when he was caught at midwicket off Praveen Kumar, only for the ball had been declared a beamer and thus a no ball. (Agencies)