Top 6 closest ODI matches in cricket history

5. India vs Sri Lanka, 1st ODI at Rajkot, 15th December 2009

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After the Test series had ended in a humbling fashion for Sri Lanka, the two sides locked horns in the limited overs series. Virender Sehwag, who was in sparkling form in the Test series, took off from where he left.

Batting first, Tendulkar and Sehwag piled on 150 inside 20 overs. With plenty of batting still to come, a big first innings total was on the cards.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni promoted himself to further accelerate the pace, and he did just that by scoring 72 off just 53 deliveries. Plenty of cameos by the middle-order batsmen carried India to a massive total of 414. Sehwag spearheaded the batting for India by scoring 146 off just 102 balls.

Dilshan and Tharanga kept Sri Lanka neck to neck in the pursuit of this big target. They put on nearly 200 for the first wicket before part-time bowler Suresh Raina provided India the wicket of Tharanga.

Skipper Sangakkara joined the centurion Dilshan at No. 3 and put on yet another big stand. He blazed away to 90 off just 43 balls, sharing a partnership of 128 runs with Dilshan.

But Sangakkara pulled one to deep square leg and was dismissed for 90, which was the turning point of the match.

Dilshan was still going strong, but the inability of the middle-order batsmen to put their hands up enhanced the pressure on the opener. Dilshan was bowled by Harbhajan Singh for a splendid innings of 160.

Thilina Kandamby and Angelo Matthews kept the runs coming but the boundaries had dried up. Sri Lanka kept losing wickets under pressure, trying to hit big.

In spite of a phenomenal effort in the run-chase, Sri Lanka ended up on 411, four runs short of pulling off a heist.