India make it to the finals

India was desperate to win today’s match as it would ensure their berth in the finals. If India win today’s match they will clash against the Aussies in the final if not their hopes in the final will rely on the outcome Australia-Sri Lanka encounter. India won the toss and elected to bowl first. India decided to go in for five bowlers as the conditions were ideal for bowling .Sri Lanka started off confidently with a first ball boundary by opener Perera.But later he was bowled out by a good delivery from Ishant in the fourth over.Sangakkara came in and there was a good partnership building between Jayasuriya and Sangakkara .India got its breakthrough when Sangakkara played a reckless shot giving opportunity for Praveen Kumar to claim his first wicket in this series. Soon after his dismissal wickets kept falling quickly. Sri Lankan’s batting was pathetic with poor shot selection and playing loose shots. At one point of time Sri Lanka were 93-7 and were to struggling to get runs. Indians should have restricted Sri Lanka to 120 but with some good batting from Kapugedera (57) they managed to reach 179.Indian paceman Praveen kumar and Ishant Sharma got 4 wickets each with their impressive bowling performances. Chasing 180 wasn’t much of a challenge for India. The bowlers have done their job and now it’s the job of the batsmen to deliver.Uthappa was sent to open the Indian innings with Tendulkar and this can seen as a positive move to find the right opening pair combination.Tendulkar who wasn’t in the best of his form in the series so far played some exquisite shots and he was simply at his best. It was good for Tendulkar to regain his form before the finals. The fielders at the slips had a very bad day with both Jayawardene and Tendulkar missing catches. The so called famous doosras form Murali made little difference to India’s aggressive batting as Tendulkar continued playing his shots. Eventually Murali provide the breakthrough by dismissing Tendulkar for 63.Gambhir has been in fine form and brilliant throughout the series and his fabulous knock of 63 should keep him in the run for the Man of the series. The overall performance of the Indian team was very encouraging. Statistics point out that India has not won a ODI tournament in Australia since 1985.Now that India have won, it will face the menacing Aussies in the final on Sunday.