India claim finals berth

Ishant Sharma claimed four wickets against Sri Lanka

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A 102-run partnership between Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir secured India's place in the Commonwealth Bank Series final after they completed a comfortable seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart on Tuesday.

Set 180 to win after Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar had claimed four wickets each to dismiss Sri Lanka - who needed to win to keep alive their hopes of facing Australia in the best-of-three final - for 179, Tendulkar (63) and Gambhir (64 not out) guided India home with just over 17 overs to spare.

Having being dropped by Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene off the third ball of the innings, opener Robin Uthappa (11) departed seven balls later after being caught by Ishara Amerasinghe at mid-on off Lasith Malinga to bring Tendulkar to the crease alongside Gambhir.

Tendulkar was the first to bring up his half-century, from 44 balls, which included nine fours, and after the pair brought up India's 100 in the 17th over and their 100-run partnership in 108 balls, Gambhir brought up his 50 off 72 balls.

Gautam Gambhir sealed India's finals place

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The partnership was finally broken as Tendulkar was caught at long-off by Chamara Silva off Muttiah Muralitharan at the start of the 21st over to leave India on 120 for two.

Yuvraj Singh contributed a quickfire 36 off 35 balls before being caught in the covers by Tillakaratne Dilshan off Dilruwan Perera at the end of the 30th over with India at 171 for three.

Rohit Sharma and Gambhir rounded off the empathic victory as India reached their target with a run rate of just over 5.5 an over compared to Sri Lanka's 3.79.

Earlier, after losing the wicket of opener Perera in just the third over, Sanath Jayasuriya and Kumar Sangakkara shared a handy partnership before Sri Lanka lost six wickets for only 21 runs in just over 10 overs.

But after slumping to 93 for seven, Chamara Kapugedera`s 57 helped Mahela Jayawardene`s side at least give the bowlers a total to defend.

Kumar, whose dismissal of Sangakkara was his first in one-day cricket, returned figures of 4-31 off 10 overs, while Ishant Sharma's four wickets cost 41.