Matches played January 27

Group One: India 157 for 2 (27.3 overs, Bisla 68) beat West Indies 155 for 9 (50 overs) by eight wickets Defending champions India breezed past a disappointing West Indies side with more than 22 overs to spare. Strangled by tight bowling from India, the West Indies's increasing desperation manifested itself in a series of poor strokes. Their inability to play spin was apparent, left-armer Shankara Rao taking 2 for 8 and offspinner Rajesh Sharma 2 for 28. In reply Parthiv Patel (47) got the Indian innings off to a brisk start, and then Maninder Bisla, who had earlier taken 2 for 29, followed up with an unbeaten 68 as the West Indies wilted. "Our batting is not our strong point," reflected coach Dilip Vengsarkar "Our bowling attack is very good but we need to ensure we put runs on the board first. We had one bad day last week but hopefully we have got that out of our system."

Group Two Pakistan 184 all out (48.3 overs, Fayyaz 53, Prasad 4-30) beat Sri Lanka 179 all out (48.5 overs) by five runs It was far closer at Lincoln where Sri Lanka appeared dead and buried when they slid to 97 for 7 chasing a target of 185. But an eighth-wicket stand of 50 between Dammika Prasad and Gamini Kumara (45) brought them back into contention, leaving them needing 12 from two overs with the last pair at the wicket. Kumara hit the second ball of the penultimate over for six, but instead of looking for singles he tried to repeat the blow and was bowled. Earlier, Pakistan had squandered a strong position when they lost Kamran Sajid (31) and Mohammad Fayyaz (53) to unnecessary run-outs.

In the Plate competition matches went according to form. Bangladesh, who defeated India last week, skittled out Papua New Guinea for 75, Safaq Al Zabir taking 4 for 29, and then knocked off the runs in 18 overs for the loss of just one wicket.

Zimbabwe flayed the Kenyan attack to score 291 for 7 with Tatenda Taibu, who has played Test cricket, scoring 65. Kenya were never in the game and were bowled out for 80, Waddington Mwayenga taking 5 for 21.

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