England go into the final of the ICC Champions Trophy with the chance of winning the tournament for the very first time and taking themselves into The Ashes in the best possible fashion.
However, their opponents have cruised into the final, captained by MS Dhoni, India have put together some fine batting performances in what is going to be a thrilling final at Edgbaston.
England come off the back of a surprisingly comfortable semi-final victory over South Africa, with Jonathan Trott on fine form managing to see the game out on an unbeaten 82 and reach the Proteas score with 13 overs to spare.
Although South Africa's batting was clearly not up to scratch, England's bowlers made the most of the surface and got off to the perfect start when both Ingram and Amla were dismissed for a combined score of 1 run, Anderson and Finn taking wickets for Ingram and Amla respectively.
Throughout the match England's bowling and fielding was superb, with Butler excelling behind the wicket taking the catch of De Villiers for a duck and sending him back to the stands.
With 176 needed, England knew that a comfortable 4 an over would easily be enough to take them to the final, but it was never going to be that straight forward. Cook being dismissed for just 6 runs early on raised a few eyebrows but Trott came in with confidence and stability and reached his 82 not out off 84 balls. Joe Root nearly made his half century but fell two short when he was bowled out by Duminy but England made it through to the final in 37 overs and the "choking" tag once put on South Africa continued.
India made the final in similar fashion, it took just 35 overs for them to overcome a poor batting display by Sri Lanka, who clawed their way to 181/8 but India's batting was too much for the Sri Lankan bowlers, Shikhar Dhawan reaching 68 and the other opener Rohit Sharma accumulating 33.
Virat Kohli reached his half century and ended up on 58 not out, but it was all routine for India who will favour their batting over England come Sunday.
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