To the irony of the Indians, Australia had to lose against Pakistan and India had to beat West Indies by a big margin if Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men were to make it to the semi-finals.

India rode on Virat Kohli's unbeaten 79 and Dinesh Karthik's 34 to overhaul the West Indies score in 32.1 overs after Praveen Kumar (3-31) and Ashish Nehra (3-22) ran havoc with the new ball and then Harbhajan Singh joining the party with two wickets to bundle out the Caribbean side for 129 in 36 overs.

Earlier, put into bat, West Indies had a tottering start to their innings and lost half their side inside 17 overs with Darren Sammy (23), David Bernard (22) and Devon Smith (21) top scoring.

Chasing the modest target, India received the bad news from Centurion that Australia had beaten Pakistan just two overs into their innings and the frustration soon became visible, with Gautam Gambhir inside edging a Kemar Roach delivery on to his stumps.

Rahul Dravid marked his arrival at the crease in style, flicking Roach for a boundary in the first ball he faced but the veteran right-hander fell to a terrible mix up with Karthik with India slumping to 16 for two after four overs.

With no pressure under their belt, it was an ideal platform for Kathik and young Kohli to impress the selectors and the duo grabbed the chance with both hands and played cautiously to share an 88-run third wicket stand.

Kohli was the aggressor among the two as he hit Bernard for three boundaries in the 26th over to reach to his half-century, while Karthik played the role of sheet-anchor, dealing in ones and twos with occasional hits to the fence.

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Kohli struck nine fours and three sixes while Karthik found the fence four times.

Kathik's sedate innings finally came to an end in the 28th over with Tonge breaking the partnership, held at mid-on by Travis Dowlin.

Earlier, the Indian pacers exploited the spongy Wanderers track to great effect as Praveen drew first blood removing Andre Fletcher (0) with the last ball of the opening over of the innings.

Nehra then dealt a double blow, removing Kieran Powell (5) and Smith in the same over.

The lanky left-arm pacer's outswinging delivery got the edge of Powell's bat as West Indies were reduced to 26 for two in 7.2 overs and three balls later Smith perished while chasing an away going delivery.

Praveen struck again in the 11th over, removing skipper Floyd Reifer (1) when he had him caught behind by Karthik.

Five overs later, India skipper Dhoni also decided to roll over his arm and registered his first International wicket when he cleaned up Dowlin to reduce the West Indies to 57 for five in 16.4 overs.

Sammy (23 off 38) and Bernard did show some resistance, sharing 32 runs for the sixth wicket before leg-spinner Amit Mishra induced the latter with a flighted delivery outside the off-stump, to hand Dravid his second catch of the day.

Sammy was the next to depart with Nehra striking with the first ball of his second spell.

Harbhajan also registered wickets against his name, picking up Royston Crandon and Roach at the fag end of the West Indies innings.

Praveen then cleaned up the West Indies batting line-up when he caught last man Gavin Tonge off his own bowling to finish off the proceedings.