Durban, Mar 20: India rode on skipper Sourav Ganguly's record-equalling century to enter the World Cup final for only the second time in their history, ending the fairytale run of Kenya in a day-night semi-final here today. Ganguly's unbeaten 111, his fourth World Cup hundred, propelled the 1983 champions to 270 for four while the brave Kenyans could muster only 179 in 46.2 overs in their biggest- ever game.
The comprehensive 91-run victory set up a mouth-watering title clash between India and defending champions Australia in Johannesburg on Sunday.
Ganguly's third century in this tournament, studded with five fours and an equal number of sixes, put him on par with teammate Sachin Tendulkar and Australian Mark Waugh who too have scored four world cup tons -- the maximum by any batsman.
Tendulkar, who put on 103 runs for the second wicket with Ganguly, played another fine knock today before falling on 83 -- the seventh time in 10 innings in this competition that he crossed fifty but failed to register a hundred.
Later Tendulkar chipped in with two wickets including that of Kenyan skipper Steve Tikolo, who top-scored for his side with 56.
The defeat ended a dream run of the Kenyans -- the lowest ranked team among the three co-hosts of the tournament -- who became the first non-test playing nation to reach the semi- finals of the World Cup. Bureau Report