India cricket team
India set up a meeting with England after defeating Sri Lanka in emphatic style.

World champions India booked a meeting with England in the Champions Trophy final after thrashing Sri Lanka by eight wickets at Cardiff.

Sri Lanka produced a sub-par batting performance on a slow pitch at the Swalec Stadium, ending on 181 for 8 from their 50 overs, with Angelo Mathews top scoring with 51 and Ishant Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin both finishing with three wickets.

And India knocked off the total with 15 overs to spare as Shikhar Dhawan survived two dropped chances to add to his burgeoning reputation with 68 from 92 balls, sharing a 75-run opening stand with Rohit Sharma (33) before Virat Kohli (58 not out) and Suresh Raina (7 not out) helped the unbeaten Indians home.

Duncan Fletcher's will take on his former side England in Sunday's final at Edgbaston hoping for a reverse of the last one-day series which saw their opponents take a best of five-match series 3-0.

India did win the recent one-day series 3-2 on home soil during the winter and will go into the weekend's final looking to win the last staged Champions Trophy tournament outright for the first time, and complete a limited-over treble having won the 50-over World Cup and Twenty20 World Cup in the last six years.

Captain MS Dhoni said: "I think it is a well-written script, good toss to win, started well by the bowler, unfortunately for SL they lost Dilshan, we capitalised on that, then the bowlers bowled well, especially the spinners.

"I think it is important to have good bowlers in the side. The ball was still doing a bit. Bhuvnesh had already bowled 8 or 9, we wanted to keep some of the fast bowlers' overs for the death, so with Karthik around I think might as well give it a go.

"I thought even if it goes badly, I'll bowl one over. It went okay so I bowled another. England are a very good side, and we have played a lot against them in the last couple of years."

Defeated Sri Lankan skipper Mathews said: "The toss was crucial, we would have also bowled if we won the toss. The ball was seaming around, swinging around, the pitch was two-paced, our batsmen found it difficult. But credit should go the Indians."

India