India continued their unstoppable march to the finals of the ICC Champions Trophy with a ridiculously easy eight-wicket semifinal win over Sri Lanka.
The India bowlers, on a day that offered quite a bit of swing and seam movement, made full use of the conditions, grinding down the Sri Lankan batsmen to a mere 181 for eight in 50 overs.
There was never really any doubt in the chase, as Shikhar Dhawan (68) and Rohit Sharma again set a solid base, scoring 77 runs for the first wicket, before Virat Kohli (58 not out) found some form to take his side to a comfortable victory, reaching the target in just 34.4 overs.
India now face England in the finals on Sunday and man of the match Ishant Sharma, who picked up three wickets, believes his side are capable of continuing the good form shown during the entire tournament so far.
"I think we've played quite good cricket until now," the India fast bowler said. "I don't think we have to change anything. We'll stick to the plans and we'll stick to our strengths and what we did before, I think we just carry on doing the same thing in the finals."
With India only having three seamers in their lineup and the ball moving around a little, there was even time for skipper M.S. Dhoni to have a bowl out in the middle, with the wicketkeeper finishing with pretty decent figures of 4-0-17-0.
Dhoni thought he had picked up the wicket of Mahela Jayawardene in his very first over, with umpire Aleem Dar giving the batsman out lbw, but DRS came to the Sri Lankan veteran's rescue.
Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews, who top scored with 51, admitted his side just hadn't made enough runs at the end of the day to threaten India.
"It was a bad day, obviously," Mathews said. "Dinesh Chandimal was not fit. He was not fit, and the toss was very vital, I thought.
"The wicket was swinging and seaming, so the batters were finding it hard to time the ball, especially with the two new balls. It was not coming on. It was a bit too paced and it had a bit of lateral movement.
"I thought 182 was just below par. 182 was nothing on that wicket. It got easier, and with the Indian batting lineup, at least 250 would have been a good score on that."
