India's Yuvraj Singh plays a shot during a cricket match against England at the ICC Champions Trophy tournament in Jaipur yesterday. - Reuters

JAIPUR, India (Reuters):

India defeated England by four wickets in the opening Champions Trophy league tie yesterday after skittling them for 125, their lowest total against the hosts.

Fast bowler Munaf Patel and off spinner Ramesh Powar grabbed three wickets apiece after the former combined with fellow seamer Irfan Pathan early on to reduce England to 55 for five.

Indian batsmen faced anxiety on a slow pitch before reaching 126 for six in reply with 20.3 overs to spare. Steve Harmison and James Anderson, on their injury comebacks, and off spinner James Dalrymple took two wickets each.

World record for sachin

Sachin Tendulkar made 35 in his world record 368th game, going past Pakistan's Inzamam ul-Haq and Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya.

England skipper Andrew Flintoff was out for a seven-ball duck on his injury comeback as the batsmen were clueless against pace and spin to be all out in just 37 overs.

The victory boosted the India after failures in two previous one-day tournaments, while it was a setback for England at the start of their final build-up for the Ashes series in Australia next month.

India, who thrashed their opponents 5-1 at home in March, took charge straightaway after captain Rahul Dravid chose to bowl first to allow his bowlers to exploit early life on a dry, cracked pitch.

Patel and Pathan snapped up the first three wickets for seven runs in their opening spells, displaying excellent line and length.

The 23-year-old Patel, quickly emerging as a strike bowler, captured three for 18 from eight overs while Pathan, 21, under pressure to regain his bowling rhythm, finished with two for 20. Powar, who had shone against England in the earlier home series, took over along with fellow off-break bowler Harbhajan Singh to run through the lower order, claiming three for 24.