June 25, 2007	Monday	Jamadi-us-Sani 09, 1428

BELFAST, June 24: Gautam Gambhir and Saurav Ganguly's unbroken stand of 162 saw India to a nine-wicket win under the Duckworth-Lewis method in the one-off One-day International against Ireland at Stormont on Saturday (partially reported in Sunday’s edition).

India, set a revised target of 171 in 39 overs after rain delayed the start of their reply by nearly three hours, finished on 171 for one with 25 balls to spare.

Man-of-the-Match Gambhir was 80 not out and fellow left-hander Ganguly 73 not out after batting star Sachin Tendulkar was bowled off the last ball of the first over by 26-year-old debutant Roger Whelan.

Earlier, India's teenage leg-spinner Piyush Chawla took a career-best three wickets for 29 runs as Ireland were bowled out for 193 in 50 overs.

The 18-year-old Chawla's figures, in his second match at this level, topped the three for 37 he took on debut against Bangladesh in Dhaka in May.

“It will be a long tour so it's important to start off well,” Gambhir, 25 told reporters. For any cricketer, not just me, it's nice to start well and I'm pleased I got the runs.

“It's not like in India where you can just go out there and play through the line of the ball,” added Gambhir after his 22nd One-day International.

“I toured England with India A so I know something about batting on these types of tracks. You want to start off a season on a high note and I'm happy about the way it's begun.”

Ireland captain Trent Johnston, who made a valuable 34, said: “I thought we did pretty well to post 190 off 50 overs and the rain gave us 171 to defend which I thought was okay.

“Getting Tendulkar out first over, I thought something might happen here. I really did believe we had enough runs to do that but we just didn't ask enough questions and that was the disappointing thing.”

Gambhir was not overawed by Tendulkar's early exit, clipping Whelan off his legs for four. He completed a 72-ball fifty featuring six fours before Ganguly reached the landmark, for the 68th time, in 79 deliveries.

This was India's first match of a tour that features three Tests and seven One-day Internationals against England starting in July.

India and South Africa then face one another in three One-day Internationals at Stormont on Tuesday, Friday and a week on Sunday.

Scoreboard

IRELAND:

W.T.S. Porterfield b Agarkar 16

K.E.D. Carroll c Karthik b Sreesanth 7

D.I. Joyce c Ganguly b Sreesanth 18

N.J. O’Brien c Sharma b R.P. Singh 52

G.C. Wilson b Chawla 13

K.J. O’Brien c R.P. Singh b Chawla 3

A.R. White c Karthik b Chawla 8

D.T. Johnston c Yuvraj b Sreesanth 34

W.K. McCallan b Singh 4

M.J. Fourie not out 4

R.K. Whelan st Karthik b Tendulkar 5

EXTRAS (LB-12, W-16, NB-1) 29

TOTAL (all out, 50 overs) 193

FALL OF WKTS: 1-14, 2-47, 3-56, 4-75, 5-83, 6-111, 7-159, 8-168, 9-187.

BOWLING: Sreesanth 10-0-50-3 (3w); R.P. Singh 10-2-36-2 (7w); Agarkar 10-2-27-1 (3w); Ganguly 6-1-15-0 (1nb, 1w); Chawla 10-2-29-3 (1w); Tendulkar 4-0-24-1 (1w).

INDIA:

S.C. Ganguly not out 73

S.R. Tendulkar b Whelan 4

G. Gambhir not out 80

EXTRAS (LB-7, W-7) 14

TOTAL (for one wkt, 34.5 overs) 171

FALL OF WKT: 1-9.

DID NOT BAT: R. Dravid, R. Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, K.D. Karthik, A.B. Agarkar, Piyush Chawla, R.P. Singh, S. Sreesanth.

BOWLING: Whelan 8-0-56-1 (3w); Fourie 6.5-0-22-0 (1w); K O'Brien 4-0-25-0; Johnston 7-0-25-0 (1w); McCallan 8-0-31-0 (2w); White 1-0-5-0.

RESULT India won by nine wickets (D/L Method).

Umpires: B.F. Bowden (New Zealand) and M.R. Benson (England).

TV umpire: Aleem Dar (Pakistan).

Match referee: A.G. Hurst (Australia).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Gautam Gambhir.—AFP