Jayawardene (52) and Kandamby (93 not out) resurrected Sri Lanka´s innings with a 100-run stand for the fourth wicket after the home side had lost their top three batsmen for just 36 runs. [break]
Following Jayawardene´s dismissal Sri Lanka lost wickets frequently, but Kandamby continued to wage a lone battle, stretching the match to the final over and pulling Sri Lanka closer to the target.
But Ishant Sharma, who finished with four wickets for 57 from 10 overs, bowled a superb penultimate over, conceding one run, which left Sri Lanka needing 20 runs off the final over to beat India´s 256 for nine.
However, Ajantha Mendis was run out to hand India victory.
Yuvraj Singh top scored for India with 66, but Sri Lanka began their reply in style.
Openers Sanath Jayasuriya and Tillakaratne Dilshan took 11 runs off the first over sent down by Zaheer Khan.
The left-arm paceman, however, made some amends in his second over by dismissing Dilshan for eight.
Zaheer conceded 24 from his first three overs and quickly made way for Ishant, who struck immediately.
Ishant got rid of the dangerous Jayasuriya (17), and Praveen Kumar, who had shared the new ball with Zaheer, then picked up the wicket of Kumar Sangakkara (four) to leave the hosts in disarray.
Jayawardene and Kandamby combined to thwart India´s attack, although the runs came excruciatingly slowly.
Play was briefly held up when Ishant was hit on the back of the neck by a missile thrown from the crowd just after the 50 partnership came up, but it failed to deter the batsmen.
Jayawardene eventually reached his half-century, the first since scoring 94 against India at the same ground in August last year, but finally fell when he scooped Pragyan Ojha to Yousuf Pathan at extra cover.
At the fall of Jayawardene´s wicket, Sri Lanka needed 121 from 15.4 overs but the wickets tumbled despite Kandamby´s resilience.
He was left stranded seven runs short of a century when the Sri Lanka innings ended with four deliveries remaining.
Earlier, Yuvraj had set India up with a knock that was a mixture of caution and aggression.
The left-hander put on 85 runs for the fourth wicket with Suresh Raina (29) to steady a line-up which had slipped to 83 for three.
Virender Sehwag (42), who missed the first match due to injury, returned to give the visitors a fine platform from which to build a total.
Sehwag lost opening partner Sachin Tendulkar for six when the Little Master was on the wrong end of a poor lbw decision.
Sehwag was joined by Gautam Gambhir (27) and the two flayed Sri Lanka´s bowlers, adding 49 for the second wicket.
Gambhir departed attempting to run a delivery from Farveez Maharoof down to third man, only to be caught behind.
Sehwag followed shortly after, falling short of his crease while attempting a third run off Thilan Thushara.
His wicket left the visitors in trouble, but Yuvraj and Raina batted sensibly to ease India past past the 150 mark.
Yuvraj´s innings ended when he was given a dubious lbw decision, having inside-edged a Kulasekara delivery on to his pads.
Muttiah Muralitharan, who needs two more wickets to become the highest wicket-taker in one-day internationals, finished with figures of 10-1-32-0.
Sri Lanka must post three consecutive victories to win the series.
Zimbabwe clinch series against Kenya
Zimbabwe clinched the one-day series against Kenya with a four-wicket win in Nairobi on Saturday.
Skipper Prosper Utseya´s 68 not out led the tourists to a victory target of 235 with 10 balls to spare.
Utseya shared an unbroken seventh-wicket stand of 86 from just 57 balls with wicketkeeper Forster Mutizwa (38no) after the pair came together at 150-3 in the 39th over.
Zimbabwe now hold an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series.
Earlier, Kenya captain Steve Tikolo won the toss and opted to bat first, a decision that looked to have backfired when his side slipped to 95-5 in the 25th over.
But number seven Collins Obuya bailed out the hosts with 55 off 63 balls, including four fours and a six.
He shared a sixth-wicket partnership of 79 with number three Alex Obanda (49) to enable Kenya to post a competitive score - they were eventually all out for 234 with three deliveries of the innings unused.
Leg-spinner Graeme Cremer, who had Obuya caught on the square-leg boundary, was the pick of Zimbabwe´s attack with figures of 4-39.
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