India book World Cup semi-final spot by routing Sri Lanka for 55

India confirmed their place in the 2023 ODI World Cup semi-finals yesterday by annihilating Sri Lanka by 302 runs at the Wankhede Stadium, thereby maintaining their unbeaten status in the tournament with a seventh successive win.

That the margin of victory was so crushing owed, once again, to the best bowling attack in the tournament – and arguably the best ever chosen by India in World Cup history – which combined to skittle an abject Sri Lanka for just 55 in 19.4 overs. Thus, India made it the third time this year that they have rolled Sri Lanka out for under 75: in Trivandrum at the start of the year, they bowled them out for 73, and then in September they went one better by keeping Sri Lanka to 50 in the Asia Cup final.

As in the two aforementioned one-way drubbings, it was Mohammed Siraj who struck fear in the hearts of Sri Lanka’s batsmen when he had them four down with just three runs on the board by the fourth over. Jasprit Bumrah, no surprises, was the bowler who got the ball rolling when he trapped Pathum Nissanka lbw off the first delivery of the chase, and enjoyed exceptional figures of 5-1-8-1.

But the man who walked away with the best figures was Mohammed Shami, who at one stage in that dismal Sri Lankan innings had figures of 4/1 before he ultimately bagged his fifth to become India’s overall leading wicket-taker in World Cup history, surpassing Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan with his 45^th victim. Having sat on the bench for four games, Shami has grabbed 14 wickets in three opportunities at just 6.71 apiece.

Thus, in Bumrah, Siraj and Shami, India possess the best pace trio of this World Cup, and now South Africa, their opponents on Sunday at Eden Gardens, must surely be worried if they had not been before this match.

By the end of the Powerplay, Sri Lanka were 14/6 and when that turned into 29/8, they appeared in danger of being bowled out for the lowest total in ODIs ever, which is 35 by Zimbabwe. However, their tail showed a bit of pluck and got past the 50 mark, but not by much. And to think that Kusal Mendis, their captain, opted to field against India on a ground as notorious for run-scoring as the Wankhede.

As awful as Sri Lanka were when chasing, they had a chance to put India under serious pressure but let them get away and put up 357. Rohit Sharma was bowled on the second delivery of the match by Dilshan Madushanka, but Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli were both dropped inside the first ten overs and went on to score 92 and 88 respectively. Shreyas Iyer hit back with a superb 82 off 56 deliveries, and despite being somewhat sloppy with the bat, this Indian team still managed to get past 350 with ease. It just underlines how strong the pre-tournament favourites are.

If there were a few concerns about this team heading into this match, it was Iyer’s aborted starts, Gill having made 100 runs in four innings and Siraj’s lack of potency as compared to Bumrah and Shami. Each of these three cricketers erased all doubts against Sri Lanka, which makes India look even stronger heading into the semi-finals.