India, endowed with a disciplined bowling, beat Pakistan by 29 runs in en emotionally choked semi finals of the Cricket World Cup 2011 at Mohali on Wednesday and is now ready to take on the Sri Lankans in the finals on April 2 at Mumbai.

India’s 260 for the loss of nine wickets did not contain any fire works of batting except a breezy 38 by opener Sehwag and a slow and steady piling up of 85 runs by another opener Sachin Tendulkar but India revealed, for the first time in the world cup matches after its glorious victory in 1983, its bowling strength to the cricket world through its disciplined and precision bowling which won the match for India and put it on the pedestal of finals with Sri Lanka.

Zaheer, Munaf, Nehra, Harbhajan and Yuvraj took two wickets each sending back the Pak team to the pavilion for 231 runs. When India made a breezy start with Sehwag making 38 out of 25 balls with nine fours, everyone expected India to amass more than 350 runs but Pakistan incredibly restricted India to 260 raising their hopes of victory in the semi final.

The main strike bowler for Pakistan Umar Gul failed to get a wicket but the young left arm pacer Wahab Riaz took five wickets for 46, the best ever by a Pakistani against India at the World Cup, and certainly laid a ground for Pakistan to win the match. But the Pakistani batsmen could not withstand the pressure exercised by the Indian bowers and lost their wickets at regular intervals.

Misbah-ul-Haq, who top-scored for Pakistan with 56, helped the team move from 208 for nine to a situation where it needed 30 from the last over. But Zaheer Khan held his nerve, bowling four dot balls before Misbah gave up a catch to Virat Kohli and ended the Pakistani innings at 231.