Cheteshwar Pujara slammed an unbeaten 129 as India routed England by 234 runs to storm into the final of the Under-19 World Cup in Colombo on Wednesday.
Winning the toss and electing to bat, the Indians piled 292 for four wickets in their allotted 50 over and then dismissed England for a mere 58 in 20.1 overs.
Medium pacer Abu Ahmed was India's wrecker-in-chief, claiming four wickets for 14 runs.
India meet the winners of the second semi-final between Australia-Pakistan which will be played on Friday.
Pujara batted right through the innings. It was a case of second time lucky for the opener as he made 97 against the West Indies in the Super League quarter-final on Saturday but this time he made no mistake.
The elegant right-hander faced 146 balls and stroked ten fours and a six as he made the most of an early let-off given to him by Moeen Ali's side.
When he had scored just one he edged Huw Waters low to the left of slip fielder Varun Choppra, who could not hold on to the chance. England were made to regret that miss.
Pujara and Gaurav Dhiman (48) once again got India off to a flying start as they have done throughout this tournament and they added 72 inside 14 overs before Dhiman, who faced 44 balls and hit eight fours and a six, miscued left-arm spinner Graeme White to be caught by the diving Rory Hamilton-Brown.
By that stage England had already played their super sub, bringing in spinner Nick James in place of seam bowler Andy Miller, who did not bowl a ball before he was replaced.
England ended up bowling 37 overs of spin through White (1-33), James (2-60), Ali (0-51) and Hamilton-Brown (0-43) but they could do little to stem the flow of runs.
Rohit Sharma (59) joined Pujara in a punishing stand of 112 in 23 overs which gave India the perfect platform for a late assault.
Sharma hit four fours and a six in 72 deliveries at the crease before Mayank Tehlan (26 from 28 balls) maintained the momentum as the innings reached a climax.
It left England with a mountain to climb although, to their credit, they kept up a healthy over-rate and bowled their 50 overs 35 minutes ahead of the scheduled finish time.
England were unable to get going after Ahmed bowled opener Varun Chopra in the second over of the innings and lost wickets at regular intervals. Right-arm off-break bowler Parmar Bipinbhai, who bowled 1.1 overs claimed two wickets without conceding a run.
Teams:
England: M.Ali (captain), V.Chopra, M.Stoneman, M. Nelson, R.Hamilton-Brown, B.Wright, S.Mullaney, G.White, J.Simpson (wkt), A.Miller, H.Waters. Super sub: N.James.
India: R.Shukla (captain), C.Pujara, G.Dhiman, R.Sharma, M.Tehlan, D.Das, R.Jadeja, P.Chawla, P.Shah (wkt), V.Yomahesh, Abu Nechim Ahmed. Super sub: Mohnish Parmar.
Umpires: B.Doctrove & S.Davis.
TV umpire: N.Ghauri.
