India crush Zimbabwe, top T20 Cup group

India have locked in a Twenty20 World Cup semi-final showdown with England by crushing Zimbabwe by 71 runs in front of 82,507 fans at the MCG.

Needing to win on Sunday night to finish on top of group 2, India made no mistake to secure their fourth victory of the tournament.

A late burst from Suryakumar Yadav, the world's No.1 T20 batter, powered a slow-starting India to 5-186 after captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and batted first.

Yadav lit up the MCG with a scintillating unbeaten 61 to put India in a commanding position after they had slumped to 4-101 in the 14th over.

The classy right-hander brought up his 50 from only 23 balls before hitting an extraordinary six off the final delivery of the innings to whip the crowd into a frenzy.

Zimbabwe were no match for the cricketing powerhouse in the chase and were all out in the 18th over for 115.

The final total became more respectable due to knocks from Ryan Burl (35) and Sikandar Raza (34) after Zimbabwe had been reduced to 2-2 and 5-38 to start their chase.

Star spinner Ravi Ashwin was the pick of India's bowlers with 3-22.

"It's a very challenging format when you have six teams in each group and if one or two results don't go your way then you're in trouble," India coach Rahul Dravid said.

"To be able to get through to the top four is nice and we're happy about it but hopefully we've got a couple of good days left us in yet."

The highlight for Zimbabwe was Burl pulling off a contender for catch of the tournament when he dived at full stretch to dismiss Indian danger man Rishabh Pant.

It was Pant's first game of the World Cup, with India determined to give him a run before the semi-finals, but the explosive left-hander was out for just three following Burl's heroics near the rope at the Punt Rd end of the ground.

"It was such an electric atmosphere and it's quite difficult when you're on the field because you can't actually shout at anybody close to you because they aren't going to hear you," Zimbabwe captain Craig Ervine said.

"It's very easy to get caught up in all the noise with everyone cheering so there's lots of little things we can't take out of tonight."

India were already guaranteed to qualify for the semi-finals but their triumph over Zimbabwe means they will host England at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday night in the second semi-final.

If they can defeat England, they will return to the MCG for the final, a venue where they won twice in two weeks and have enjoyed rousing crowd support from India's passionate fans.