London Olympic bronze medallist MC Mary Kom cruised into the final and inched closer to her second India Open boxing gold here yesterday. Mary Kom put up a flamboyant display to resist an aggressive Nikhat Zareen. She took time to settle into the much-awaited bout as Zareen was the early aggressor.

It was in the final round that the Olympian found her stride and punched her way with the split verdict of 4-1 to set up a final showdown with Vanlal Duati, who registered a 3-2 win over Jyoti. "Nikhat is normally a boxer who doesn't like to come inside much and I am more of a counter boxer, so I used that to my advantage," said the Manipuri great.