India crush Kenya to go through to final Wanting the underdog to win may be one thing, but fans of cricket, and not just Indian ones, would surely have prayed for an Indian win against Kenya, if only to set up a title clash against Australia that would be worthy of the World Cup. And India obligingly won by 91 runs in their semi-final at Durban. Sourav Ganguly, in fact, grinned with childish glee after winning the toss and opting to bat first. He proceeded then to top-score for India, making 111 off 114 balls (five fours, five sixes) at number three, after Sachin Tendulkar (83) had missed out on another century for the taking. India made 270/4, which, considering Kenya's batting and India's newly discovered bite in the bowling, was about 150 too many. Sure enough, Kenya were at one stage struggling at 104 for seven and were finally bowled out for 179, Steve Tikolo making a desolate 56. That ended Kenya's fairy-tale run, and although they may have won hearts with their joie de vivre and enthusiasm, a World Cup final is a World Cup final, and India are better equipped to challenge Australia there.

Ganguly defends bowling tactics Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh bowling at Kenyan tailenders in the last 10 overs, when Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra had overs in the bag, may have been an inexplicable move to Indian fans. But Indian captain Sourav Ganguly defended his bowling tactics while arguing that his team's desperately one-sided World Cup semi-final win over Kenya on Thursday was good preparation to meet Australia. Ganguly, who set up the 91-run win with an unbeaten century, was asked why he bowled a string of occasional bowlers rather than go for the kill against the outclassed Kenyans after they had slumped to 92 for six.The India skipper said Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag might have to bowl in Sunday's final. .We wanted to give everybody a bowl once they were 92 for six," he said. "They obviously went for a few runs, but once the fast bowlers came back we finished it off quickly.. Asked if the match had been a good warm-up for Ricky Ponting's Australians, Ganguly replied, "I think it was a good preparation. Winning the last eight games in a row, that is definitely good preparation for a World Cup final." Ganguly said he had been concerned when Tendulkar drew his attention to lightning after the initial overs. "But once we finished 15 overs, we had spinners at both ends to quickly get to 25. We were lucky that way," he said. Kenyan captain Steve Tikolo, when asked which team he expected to win the final, said, "I would go with Australia. The way they have played, they have had close games and they have come through them."

Lee's pace must be playing on India's minds - Gilchrist Australia's vice-captain Adam Gilchrist believes the pace of Brett Lee will play on the minds of India's batsmen ahead of Sunday's World Cup final. The fair-haired Lee, with 20 tournament wickets, terrorised the India top-order in the group phase as they lost by nine wickets. "He rattled the Indians at Centurion Park," Gilchrist told Reuters. "It was a tactical move by Ricky (Ponting) to give Brett the new ball, as usually we had seen (Glenn) McGrath and (Jason) Gillespie share it, but he decided to take them on with pace straight away. Brett came through and so it will be on their minds for sure and they will also remember they had to face him when he first came into international cricket and was bowling with real pace then as well," he added.

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