Sehwag And Ganguly Rout England

Sehwag hit 21 fours and a six in his 104-ball 126 and Ganguly finished unbeaten on 117 as India reached their target of 270 with 10.3 overs to spare.

The pair shared a first wicket stand of 192, but Ganguly could have been run out for 12 had Nasser Hussain managed to hit the stumps from close range at mid-off.

Sehwag struck Andy Caddick for three fours in one over and followed up with a dismissive six to third man as the pace bowler conceded 49 runs from six overs with the new ball. Ganguly too put England to the sword and reached three figures at a little over a run-a-ball, having hit 10 fours and two sixes.

Just one semblance of a chance went astray when Knight failed to cling on to what would have been a sensational catch away to his right at second slip off Caddick when Sehwag had made just three.

Sehwag finally went caught and bowled by Blackwell. VVS Laxman was run out by half the length of the pitch shortly afterwards, but Ganguly stepped up a gear to close out the match with Sachin Tendulkar.

Knight had earlier worked hard for exactly 50, but it was Blackwell's 82 from only 68 balls which added unexpected impetus after Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan had threatened to derail England.

Trescothick dabbled with a short-of-a-length ball from Nehra and was caught for a duck by Laxman, who dived from second in front of first slip.

Makeshift wicketkeeper Rahul Dravid then chased round to short fine-leg to collect Hussain's faulty hook one run later to leave England seven for two.

Knight began the recovery in an important 73-run third-wicket partnership with Ronnie Irani. Blackwell and Alec Stewart put on 104 for the sixth wicket in only 15 overs to help set an apparently testing target.

Irani missed Anil Kumble's googly and was adjudged lbw and Knight got out with a lofted drive off Yuvraj Singh straight to long-on.

Owais Shah added a handy middle-order contribution, but after he had gone to a thin edge behind off Kumble Blackwell gathered momentum in a contribution which contained six fours and two sixes.

His lively innings was not enough though, and India eased to victory - racking up the highest ever successful run chase under the Premadasa Stadium lights to set up a semi-final against South Africa.