TRELAWNY (Jamaica), March 9: Indian pacemen led by Munaf Patel skittled out West Indies for 85 in their warm-up tie on Friday to plunge the hosts into a batting crisis four days before their first World Cup match.

The lanky Patel grabbed four wickets after left-arm seamer Irfan Pathan triggered the collapse by removing skipper Brian Lara for a top-score of 22 in a fine display of seam bowling.

West Indies lost their last eight wickets for 32 runs.

West Indies batsmen contributed to the debacle with poor shots on a pitch which quickly lost its early carry, leaving them with serious concerns before their opening World Cup Group D tie against Pakistan on Tuesday.

The innings ended in 25.5 overs, with almost half the quota of overs to be bowled.

Patel, 23, gave the 1983 champions a major boost to return four for 10 from six overs as all four Indian seamers shone after new ball bowlers Ajit Agarkar and Zaheer Khan struck.

Struggling seamer Pathan regained some confidence after claiming three for 25.

However, it was downhill for West Indies.

Marlon Samuels, who hit a century in Monday's warm-up game victory over Kenya, was out first ball after being sent in as low as number eight.

Lara briefly stemmed the rot before being caught and bowled by Pathan, deceived by the slow pitch to offer a tame catch.

Indian pacemen Zaheer and Agarkar had left-handed openers Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Chris Gayle caught behind off successive deliveries to make it 14-2 in the fifth over. Both made six runs apiece.

Lara showed ominous early form with fluent drives off Zaheer past cover and point for two fours, having opted not to bat in Monday's warm-up win over Kenya and electing to take first strike on winning the toss.

He pulled and then hit a four to the straight fence off Agarkar, but failed to cash in after he was dropped by Yuvraj Singh at point on 22 playing a fierce cut against Zaheer.

Patel, brought on at the other end, struck two quick blows to make it 57 for five in the 17th over, removing Ramnaresh Sarwan (13) and all-rounder Dwayne Bravo (0).

The lower order batsmen caved in after that.

India left out Sachin Tendulkar due to what skipper Rahul Dravid said was a niggle, but the team manager said it was nothing serious.

Scoreboard

WEST INDIES:

C.H. Gayle c Dhoni b Agarkar 6

S. Chanderpaul c Dhoni b Zaheer 6

R.R. Sarwan c Sehwag b Patel 13

B.C. Lara c and b Pathan 22

D.J. Bravo c Harbhajan b Patel 0

K.A. Pollard c Dhoni b Pathan 2

D. Ramdin c Sehwag b Patel 3

M.N. Samuels lbw b Pathan 0

L.M.P. Simmons not out 9

D.R. Smith c Karthik b Patel 13

J.E. Taylor lbw b Kumble 0

EXTRAS (W-9, NB-2) 11

TOTAL (all out, 25.5 overs) 85

FALL OF WKTS: 1-14, 2-14, 3-53, 4-53, 5-57, 6-61, 7-62, 8-62, 9-80.

DID NOT BAT: D.B. Powell, C.D. Collymore.

BOWLING: Agarkar 7-1-27-1; Zaheer Khan 6-1-22-1 (3w); Irfan Pathan 6-0-25-3 (1nb, 5w); Munaf Patel 6-0-10-4 (1w); Kumble 0.5-0-1-1.

INDIA: V. Sehwag, A.R. Uthappa, S.C. Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, R. Dravid , K.D. Karthik, M.S. Dhoni, A. Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, A.B. Agarkar, Munaf Patel.

UMPIRES: B.G. Jerling (South Africa) and E.A.R. de Silva (Sri Lanka).—Agencies

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