Cricket is really simple. Bat well, bowl well and field well - you will win the match.
On Tuesday at The Oval, India aced all three departments with flying colours to ease to an eight-wicket win over the West Indies and book themselves a place in the semifinals of the ICC Champions Trophy 2013.
Put into bat, West Indies did not fare too well as Ravindra Jadeja rattled the batsmen, picking up five wickets, to help India restrict their opponents to 233 for nine from their 50 overs; and that score was only made possible because of a blistering final salvo from Darren Sammy (56 in 36 balls).
It was as easy as an apple pie for India - actually being India it should probably be as easy as dal roti - as the openers - Shikhar Dhawan (102 n.o.) and Rohit Sharma (52 in 56) -- yet again put up a century partnership, setting the game up for a ridiculously easy chase.
India finished on 236 for two in just 39.1 overs, finishing the final few runs off quickly, after the match was interrupted by rain for half an hour towards the end.
The epic India vs Pakistan match on Saturday now is academic, with West Indies and South Africa set for a straight shootout for the second semifinal spot.
Dhawan and Rohit were again in their elements, looking so good with their stroke-making - they have to be the most elegant opening pair in world cricket at the moment - and demoralizing the West Indies right from the off.
There was an element of luck in Dhawan's innings this time around, with the left-hander dropped on 23 and 41. The first was a chance only Kieron Pollard could have even got the tip of his fingers to, but the second was a sitter with Kemar Roach dropping a simple catch at fine-leg off Dwayne Bravo.
You make your own fortune, though, and Dhawan (102, 103b, 10x4, 1x6), never rattled, carried on without any more hiccups making the West Indies bowling look like Disneyland for a six-year-old.
Sharma (52, 56b, 7x4) was picked up by Sunil Narine, and after Virat Kohli played a nice little 22-run innings, Dhawan and Karthik came together for an unbeaten 109 runs to see India through.
Dhawan typically reached his hundred - his second straight - with a six over third man, before allowing Karthik (51, 54b, 8x4) to reach his half-century as India entered the last four in some style.
The first innings was all about two men - Ravindra Jadeja and Darren Sammy. One befuddling the West Indies batsmen with his admiringly insistent line; the other making it a semblance of a contest with some outstanding hitting in the final overs.
Johnson Charles threatened to take India to town in the first 20 overs, laying onto the fast bowlers, with Umesh Yadav in particular suffering a fair tonking, after Bhuvneshwar Kumar had dismissed the dangerous Chris Gayle, who looked in the mood before edging one to slips in the fifth over.
Charles preferred the onside, trusting the bounce on the pitch and making full use of the lack of seam movement to play across the line towards midwicket.
However, Dhoni, sensing the danger, brought on Ravindra Jadeja, who after a first probing maiden over, trapped Charles (60, 55b, 7x4, 2x6) in front of the wicket in his second.
West Indies were in a strong position on 103 for two in 19.5 overs at that point, but India took complete control from there until the 45th over.
Jadeja was at his accurate best, just unwilling to move the ball away from the stumps and giving the West Indies batsmen no respite.
The left-armer picked up a couple more wickets in quick succession, with Marlon Samuels another lbw victim before Ramnaresh Sarwan was caught behind down the leg side.
Darren Bravo, who came in at No. 3, hit a brick wall playing an innings of 35 from 83 balls, which in today's times would have probably been considered slow even for a Test match.
The usually elegant left-hander forgot to bring his array of shots to The Oval as Jadeja and the rest of the bowlers turned on the screws, leaving the batsman failing to even find the simple singles.
The other batsmen did not fare too well either, even if it might have not been as bad as Darren Bravo's struggles - R Ashwin ended the left-hander's misery in the 34th over with a wonderful off-spinner, which led to a stumping by Dhoni.
Dwayne Bravo, the West Indies skipper and half-brother of Darren, stuck around for a while scoring 25 from 40 balls, while Kieron Pollard (22, 32b, 2x6), who began in typical fashion smashing a couple of sixes to get off the mark, also got off to a start but failed to kick on.
With wickets continuing to tumble it was down to Sammy, who was only in the team due to Denesh Ramdin's two-match suspension, to squeeze out as many runs as possible in the end and he did that in some style too.
After Jadeja (five for 36) put West Indies on the brink by picking up a couple of wickets to complete his five-wicket haul, Sammy got together with No.11 Kemar Roach, piling on 51 runs from 4.3 overs, with Roach, scoring all of zero runs.
Sammy (56, 35b, 5x4, 4x6) made use of the strike to great effect, while finding the straight boundaries brilliantly - Ishant Sharma felt much of the brunt, giving away 21 runs in the penultimate over - to push the score to 233 for nine, when at one point 200 looked well beyond reach.
However, with the batting mood that India were in, even 300 might not have done the job.
