India warm up with another victory

The visitors made 161 for five after being put in to bat and bowled with discipline to restrict the domestic T20 champions to 146 for seven in the stipulated 20 overs.

This is India's third successive win in practice games, before heading to the lone Twenty20 and five one-day Internationals against England.

Vinay Kumar was the hero of India's win, bowling his four overs for only 29 runs and picking up three wickets to bog down the local team.

The Indians made their runs collectively with openers Parthiv Patel (40) and Ajinkya Rahane (19) giving a good start of 52 runs from 5.4 overs. Later Rohit Sharma (29) and Suresh Raina (21) provided a good flourish towards the end.

In between, Rahul Dravid contributed 29 but his attempts at slogging didn't go with his elegant batting style.

Leicestershire lost an early wicket to Praveen Kumar but then Andrew McDonald (44) and Will Jefferson (20) threatened to take the match away from India's hands.

However, Vinay Kumar bowled an excellent spell in the middle overs and two spinners, Amit Mishra and Ravichandran Ashwin, were excellent as Indians tightened the screws.

Some late hitting by Abdul Razzaq brought the equation to 43 off the last three overs.

Praveen Kumar, who had bowled his first three overs for 16 runs, went for 10 from his final over as Leicester required 33 from the final two overs.

However, Razzaq was caught in the deep in the penultimate over bowled by Ashwin. The Pakistani all-rounder made 37 off 24 balls with the help of five fours.

Ashwin conceded only eight runs from this over to make it 25 from the final over, still a difficult task for the hosts.

Vinay Kumar then bowled the final over and conceded only nine runs besides picking up the wicket of Jacques du Toit (13) to clinch the game for the Indians.

Earlier, openers Parthiv and Rahane made 52 from 5.4 overs to give India a flying start.

Patel cut Matthew Hoggard over slips in the very first over and hoisted Razzaq over mid-on. He then cracked Hoggard through covers and lofted Razzaq over his head.

Rahane, on the other hand, favoured the on side for his early strokes, flicking Hoggard to fine leg and then driving Razzaq to the mid wicket fence. The best shot of the stand though was when he drove Hoggard for a boundary through extra cover.

Rahane, however, departed in the sixth over when he gave the charge to Razzaq and Jigar Naik at short third man held a fine catch.

Soon India lost their other opener when Parthiv holed medium-pacer Andrew McDonald to deep mid wicket