Invincible Team India: M S Dhoni & Co storm into Champions Trophy final

Kulasekara’s eyes lit up as it carried towards his captain,Angelo Mathews,at first slip. Those eyes pressed down in despair when Mathews plucked uneasily at it,latching only at thin air. It was the ninth over of the chase and Dhawan,in imperious touch right through this tournament,was on 18.

Kulasekara perhaps knew that such chances don’t come easy. And when they do,they are not to be put down. Especially not when the target set is a mediocre 182 runs. The fast bowler walked back to his bowling mark not knowing at that point that he and Sri Lanka will live to regret dropping Dhawan off his bowling not just once,but thrice.

In his following over,the 11th,Kulasekara found Dhawan’s outside edge again,this time with a ball that swung away. Kumar Sangakkara,with the help of his mittens,surely would have caught it had he not been standing right up to the stumps to a fast bowler. When he was put down for the third time,by a diving Sachitra Senanayake at point during Kulasekara’s final over,Dhawan had already made 62 and India were exactly 50 runs away from an easy victory. But in between his second and his third life,the man in sensational form had played some strokes that resonated around the Sophia Gardens.

Tough conditions

India’s eight wicket win with 15 overs to spare over Sri Lanka on Thursday was set up primarily by India’s pace attack. But in difficult batting conditions on a difficult pitch that gleefully assisted spring,seam and sharp spin,India’s top order made things look easier than it really was. Between sparkling strokes,Dhawan struggled. As did his opening partner Rohit Sharma and number three Virat Kohli. But their scores of 68,33 and 58* respectively ensured that India breezed through to their third Champions Trophy final,in search of their first conclusive trophy win.

On a day when the forecast was for a washout,the rains stayed well away from east Wales. But the India-Sri Lanka semi-final wasn’t one without long interruptions. Twice on either side of the innings break,protesters carrying the Tamil Eelam flag brought the match to a standstill. And on both occasions,Rohit Sharma was in the vicinity.

The first time was in the final over of the first innings,when Lasith Malinga,facing his first ball of the game,looked to hoick Ravichandran Ashwin over long-on for six. As Rohit swirled under the ball,two men darted past Rohit,perhaps distracting him from taking the catch. Malinga ran three,the invaders were rugby-tackled to the ground and Rohit complained to the umpires. When it wasn’t given a dead ball,the red flagged men perhaps sympathised with Rohit’s cause as well,next barging the field in numbers only at the fall of his wicket.

If India’s batting in this Champions Trophy has picked itself up to the occasion,then a large slice of the credit must go to their openers. For the first time in seven editions of the tournament,Rohit and Dhawan became the first opening pair to record four fifty plus stands in a row.

A degree of poise

Having scored a century against Australia,South Africa and the West Indies since his international comeback this year,Dhawan went after Sri Lanka,and especially Malinga,with a degree of poise. Malinga heaved in a bouncer in the fourth over,but Dhawan had skated down to it,driving an impossible ball on the rise past backward point for four. And when Malinga dug it in shorter,Dhawan employed the slice over the cordon for six.

Stroke for stroke and chance for chance,Rohit matched his partner. An over after Dhawan was first dropped,Rohit squirted an edge off his blade,once again to Mathews at first slip. Then as Dhawan recovered with two boundaries by punishing Perera for his miss,Rohit did the same,taking Kulasekara on with a swivelling,one-legged pull through midwicket and to the fence.

In his attempt to make amends for his missed chances,captain Mathews introduced his medium pace into the attack. In Mathews’ second over,Rohit looked to carve him with a charge,but only ended up throwing away yet another start,bowled on 33. Out went six protesters and in came Virat Kohli,a man who had scored more than a third of his one-day runs against the Lankans.

In his last seven innings versus Sri Lanka,Kohli has hit a hundred in Hobart,a hundred in Dhaka,a hundred in Hambantota and a hundred in Dhaka. A hundred today would have been the most spectacular of them all,considering only 105 runs were left to win as he marked his guard. He filled his coffers with two fifties instead a 66-run stand with best mate Dhawan and an unbeaten 58 against his own name.