India Beaten Sri Lanka and reached in Final with England

By Rida Zaheer

India defeated Sri Lanka by 8 wickets in Cardiff and reached final of the ICC Champions Trophy. She will play final with England

Ishant Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin both took three wickets each for India after putting Sri Lanka into bat first.

Despite a half century from captain Angelo Mathews and Mahela Jayawardene’s 38, the Sri Lankan’s only managed a total of 181 for 8 at the end of their 50 overs.

Damp and overcast conditions made for a difficult batting wicket but India made easy work of reaching their victory target.

Openers Shikhar Dhawan (68) and Rohit Sharma (33) helped India on their way, while a half century from Virat Kohli secured the result against the same side they defeated in the final of the World Cup in 2011.

India reached the final with 15 overs to spare to set up a showdown with hosts England at the Oval on Sunday. Since the World Cup final, the Asian rivals have met in 10 one-day internationals, with India winning seven, Sri Lanka two and one match tied.

Teams

India: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (capt/wkt), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravinchandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav

Sri Lanka: Kusal Perera, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Kumar Sangakkara (wkt), Mahela Jayawardene, Jeevan Mendis, Angelo Mathews (capt), Lahiru Thirimanne, Nuwan Kulasekara, Rangana Herath, Thisara Perera, Lasith Malinga

Umpires: Richard Kettleborough (ENG) and Aleem Dar (PAK)