A game reduced to 30 overs by rain began with changes for both teams. Sachin Tendulkar rested himself to give his back some rest and Jadeja who was injured in the previous game made way for Vinod Kambli and S Ramesh. For West Indies, Nixon McLean and Wavell Hinds replaced Courtney Walsh and Sherwin Campbell.

Brian Lara won the toss and elected to bat first. India were off to a flyer as Ridley Jacobs went after a Mohanty inswinger and hit the ball straight to Chopra at mid-on. West Indies had lost their first wicket off the very first ball of the innings. Jimmy Adams came in to join Chanderpaul at the fall of the first wicket.

LR Shukla playing his first match of the tournament and just the third match of his career bowled a tidy first over.

Chanderpaul then began to take the attack to Mohanty, hitting him cleanly through the line off two consecutive balls. The first ball landed just before the ropes, and the second one sailed over the ropes. Both strikes went dead straight down the ground, back over the bowler's head.

Adams flashed hard at Shukla and the ball flew off the edge past second slip. The ball raced to the third-man boundary for four.

Mohanty bowled with his fine-leg up in the circle and Chanderpaul punished him for straying onto the leg-stump. The first ball of Mohanty's 3rd over raced to the fine-leg boundary. Chanderpaul followed that up with a huge six over mid-wicket. Off the very next ball Mohanty got revenge, when Chanderpaul attempted to repeat the stroke and holed out to Chopra at deep mid-on. Chanderpaul had made 23 off just 14 balls, including 2 fours and 2 huge sixes.

Nixon McLean was sent in as a pinch-hitter at the fall of Chanderpaul's wicket. McLean swung expansively at everything that was bowled at him, but did not manage to make contact. Finally McLean made contact with a full Shukla delivery and sliced the ball to the off-side boundary. Off the next Mohanty over, McLean slammed a ball through the off-side for four.

Shukla picked up the first wicket of his career as Adams tried to go after him and hit the ball straight up in the air. Three Indian fielders converged on the ball and it looked like there might be a collision, but in the last minute Robin Singh at point called the catch and took it conformably at point. After a shaky innings, Adams had scored 8 off 22 balls.

Wavell Hinds, making his debut walked out to the wicket at the fall of Adams' wicket. Nikhil Chopra came on to bowl the 9th over. Hinds attempted to cut a ball that was too close to the stumps and was snapped up behind the stumps by MSK Prasad.

Powell struggled a bit to get the spinners away and McLean seemed to be totally out of his depth. Sagaoppan Ramesh came on to bowl his off-spinners and picked up a wicket with his first ball. McLean's luck finally ran out and he was well caught by Mohanty at long-off. McLean's pinch-hitting attempts yielded 23 runs off 30 balls.

Ramesh bowled the 21st over and was treated with absolute contempt by both Powell and Lara. Ramesh was hit for 20 runs as Lara and Powell both picked up huge sixes. Powell finally managed to get hold of a short ball from Ramesh and sent it sailing over the mid-wicket boundary. Lara ended the same over by dancing down the wicket and lofting Ramesh over long-on for six.

Robin Singh's second over began badly as Lara got hold of a short ball and pulled it viciously over square-leg for six. Lara had clearly made up his mind to attack and played the ball firmly all around the park. Lara ended the over with a fabulous pull shot for six. Once again Robin Singh dropped the ball short, and Lara was quickly into position. Rocking onto the back-foot Lara sent the ball flying out of the stadium.

Powell came down the wicket to Chopra and attempted a massive heave over mid-wicket. He missed the line of the ball completely and MSK Prasad made no mistake in completing the stumping.

Lara's class was on exhibition as he delicately glided a full Mohanty ball to third-man for four. This brought up Lara's 50 off just 40 balls. Lara followed up his delicate shot, with two powerful drives. The first ball bounced just short of the cover boundary and went over for 4. The next ball was thrashed over point for six. In attempting to hoick the ball over mid-on, Lara was caught by Chopra at deep mid-wicket. Lara had made a blistering 60 off just 40 balls.

Ganguly brought himself on to bowl the 29th over. Ganguly's over was not particularly tidy and 12 runs came off it. Robin Singh bowled the last over and began well, bowling the ball right up in the block-hole. Bryan somehow managed to squeeze the next ball out and the ball flew off the inside edge to the fine-leg boundary. After a good Robin Singh over, West Indies ended their innings at 196 for 7.

India came out to bat needing 197 runs for victory. King bowled with good pace and had Ramesh and Ganguly in some trouble. Ramesh attempted one of his lazy drives through the off-side and ended up hitting the ball straight at Perry. Perry, standing close at short extra-cover reacted very fast and snapped up the catch. The ball popped out of his hand at the first attempt but Perry was alert and dived after the ball and completed the catch. Ramesh had not yet troubled the scorers.

Ganguly and Dravid then attempted to push the scoring rate. The West Indian fast bowlers worked up a good pace and troubled both Ganguly and Dravid. Dravid looked distinctly out of form and shuffled across his stamps far more than usual. Slowly Ganguly played himself in and began to stroke a few boundaries.

Ganguly and Dravid pushed the ball into the gaps in the outfield and picked up the ones and twos. The West Indian bowlers made things easier for the Indians by bowling a leg-stump line. When the ball was full, Dravid worked the ball quickly through the on-side. Sensing that Dravid played the ball comfortably when it was full, the West Indian quicks dropped the ball short. In quick succession Dravid and Ganguly pulled the ball to the boundary.

McLean bowled a couple of fiery balls to Ganguly, and beat him all ends up. The ball narrowly missed the stumps and Ganguly was very late on the shot. Ganguly then made a mess of an LBW appeal and was stumped. He went down the wicket and as the ball flew through to the wicket keeper of his pad the West Indians went up in appeal. Ganguly was casual in getting back to the crease and Jacobs' quick flick to the stumps found Ganguly short of his crease. Ganguly had made 32 off 46 balls.

Vinod Kambli came in at the fall of Ganguly's wicket and got off the mark with a big six over long-on off the bowling of Nehemiah Perry. Rahul Dravid in turn tried to clear long-off and only managed to hit the ball straight down Hendy Bryan's throat. Dravid had made 39 off 49 balls. To compound matters, Kambli took off for a cheeky single and never looked like he was going to make it in time. A good bit of combination fielding from Lara and Jacobs got rid of Kambli. Kambli had made 11 of 14 balls.

Khurasiya looked patchy from the time he reached the crease, and did not inspire any confidence. As he has done before in the past, Khurasiya patted a harmless off-spinner straight back to the bowler. Perry accepted the return catch gratefully and Khurasiya's brief knock of 3 had ended.

Laxmi Ratan Shukla was the next man in. He signaled his intent early on, thumping the ball through the on-side. After picking up two runs for his stroke, he thrashed the next ball straight back past the bowler for four. In the course of that over, Shukla played enthusiastically, throwing his bat at everything that was on offer.

Mervyn Dillon returned to bowl and cleaned up Shukla with his first delivery. Playing all over a straight ball, Shukla's innings of 13 off 10 balls had ended.

From then on, the Indian batsmen simply played for close, realising that there was no realistic chance of winning the game. Robin Singh entertained with some clean strikes, but the match was lost a long time ago. In another one-sided finish, India slumped to a 42 run loss. For his swashbuckling innings Lara was named man of the match.