Windies fall again

- Dellmar

India's master batsman Sachin Tendulkar pulls for four during his match-winning 81 not out. The wicket-keeper is Ridley Jacobs.

BULAWAYO, CANA-Reuters:

SACHIN Tendulkar hit an unbeaten 81 to guide India to a comfortable six-wicket win over West Indies in their triangular series limited-overs cricket match on Saturday.

Opening batsman Tendulkar anchored his side as they reached their target of 170 with 6.1 of their 50 overs to spare after they restricted West Indies to 169 for seven.

India have now won the first three of their four round-robin matches, while West Indies have won one and lost one. Zimbabwe have lost three of their four matches.

Man-of-the-Match Sachin Tendulkar, in a subdued mood to begin, made his runs from 110 balls and hit eight fours, most of which came in a rush towards the end.

He gave the innings a steady start with captain Saurav Ganguly, who was controversially given out caught down the leg-side by wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs off Cameron Cuffy.

The Indian captain made no secret of his displeasure and television replays seemed to indicate the ball struck him on the thigh.

Cuffy bowled beautifully for his one wicket though, working through his 10 overs in an unbroken spell from the start and finishing with one for 20.

The loss of Dinesh Mongia, caught at the wicket off Wavell Hinds for 20, and Rahul Dravid, stumped by Jacobs after a fine piece of bowling by leg-spin bowler Mahendra Nagamootoo, suggested a few Indian nerves in the middle overs.

But a partnership of 74 for the fourth wicket between Tendulkar and Hemang Badani steadied things, and although Badani spliced a pull off Mervyn Dillon back to the bowler, India were never again in trouble.

Earlier, an unbeaten 53 from Jacobs and a fluent 44 from Marlon Samuels helped West Indies recover from a wretched start in which they slumped to 47 for five.

Jacobs and Samuels shared a partnership of 72 from 92 balls for the sixth wicket before Samuels skied a catch to Harvinder Singh at long-off from the bowling of Debashish Mohanty, who took three for 18 from 10 overs.

Jacobs and Nagamootoo added a further 37 from 47 balls for the seventh wicket until the leg-spin bowler was brilliantly caught and bowled by Zaheer Khan.

When the overs ran out, Jacobs had made his 53 from 76 balls and struck one six and one four.

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