The Hindu : Sport : India beats Ireland by 9 wickets

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Sunday, Jun 24, 2007
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India beats Ireland by 9 wickets

BELFAST, Northern Ireland: India beat Ireland by nine wickets Saturday in a rain-affected one-day international in Belfast, despite losing Sachin Tendulkar in the first over.

India scored 171-1 in 35 overs after Ireland, with only seven of its World Cup squad, was all out for 193 in its maximum 50 overs.

Rain delayed the start of the India innings by almost three hours and the revised target under the Duckworth-Lewis rules was 171 from 39 overs.

Sourav Ganguly scored an undefeated 73 off 100 balls and man-of-the-match Gautam Ghambir was not out 80 from 107 deliveries.

Tendulkar, who has scored almost 15,000 runs in ODIs, hit Roger Whelan for four before being bowled next ball between bat and pad to the delight of the home crowd.

India recovered from 9-1 to win with four overs to spare.

Ganguly found the gaps with increasing regularity and Ghambir's flowing drives produced nine boundaries and the only six of the innings.

Ireland captain Trent Johnston hit 34 off 44 balls, and Niall O'Brien scored 52.

India left out Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Zaheer Khan, who is still not fully fit, and went into the game at the Civil Service Cricket Club with only one spinner, 18-year-old Piyush Chawla.

Chawla, who took three wickets on his debut against Bangladesh last month, finished with three for 29 and, along with Ajit Agarkar, restricted the Irish batsmen. Only 14 runs came between the 30th and 40th overs, though Ireland scored 73 runs off its last 10 overs .

Rudra Pratap Singh was given the new ball over Ajit Agarkar and had to wait until his third spell before getting his first wicket _ the valuable one of O'Brien. He was caught in the covers by Rohit Sharma, making his debut for India.

Johnston was caught by Yuvraj Singh in the penultimate over _ going for his third six _ giving Sree Sreesanth his third wicket.

India conceded 29 extras, including 16 wides.

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