India whip Lanka, storm into final

CARDIFF: Such seems to be the agility in this present Indian team that if a batsman merely defends a delivery to keep it within the 30-yard circle, there are - at any given point of time - at least five fielders close enough to reach it. They seem to work like a pack of wolves, reaching their prey in seconds. Watching them right now is reminiscent of perhaps the South Africans in the late 90s and the Australians of the early 2000s. To simply mention that India won another easy match in the Champions Trophy on Thursday, this time the semifinal against Sri Lanka, would be an unfair judgment as it's indicative of only the result. Each fielding effort, the perfect throw-ins from the deep, some extremely well-taken catches, an impressive demonstration of seam bowling and another cracking batting display deserve to be highlighted as India annihilated Sri Lanka at the Sophia Gardens. Here's a team on a roll and in Sunday's final against England at Edgbaston, they'll make life difficult for the hosts. But until then, their clinical win over Sri Lanka in not very cricket-friendly conditions here in Cardiff is to be cherished. Luck has been with MS Dhoni too. Once again, the Indian skipper won the toss and put Sri Lanka in to bat first, opting to make use of the seam-friendly conditions and giving his pace trio of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma the opportunity to make the most of it. But once the coin fell in India's favour, it wasn't luck that pursued their cause. Instead, the bowlers used the conditions well and bowled with great control. The spinners too kept the pressure on. The first three Sri Lankan wickets fell, caught at second slip, and gave the average Indian fan - not used to this kind of an approach - a vision of the potential havoc these bowlers can create for the opponents in these conditions. They bowled 22 overs on the trot and by then Sri Lanka were on the mat, not by way of having lost wickets but losing on confidence to counter an in-form Indian attack. The pressure of a big game did the rest as they were reduced to 181 for 8 from 119 for 4. The only respite for the Lankans was a handy fourth-wicket stand of 78 between Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara. With the threat of rain remaining just that, the match looked set-up in India's favour. However, nothing would've prepared the Sri Lankans for what was about to follow. Thrice in succession, India's openers - Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma - successfully constructed a 50-plus partnership and they were in the zone again. Sharma played a loose shot and lost his wicket which served another reminder of how he manages to self destruct. But by then India were 77-1 and were cruising towards the target. Sri Lanka dropped Dhawan towards the end of the chase but by then, only the margin of victory was waiting to be finalised. Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina, the latter coming in place of Dinesh Karthik, to get a feel of conditions, completed the formalities. India didn't make use of the DRS in both the innings, but were very effective during the powerplay, owing to an extremely disciplined bowling and fielding effort.