The Indians 248 (Ganguly 52, Bangar 76*) and 39 for 1 beat Guyana Board President's XI 118 (Harbhajan Singh 4-37) and 168 (V Nagamootoo 78, Kumble 5-50) by 9 wickets The Indian tourists warmed up for the first Test against West Indies with a nine-wicket win over the Guyana Board President's XI in their three-day match at Georgetown's Everest ground.

Experienced legspinner Anil Kumble starred in the victory, in the Indians' only tour game before the first Test, which starts at the Bourda Oval in Georgetown on April 11. Kumble finished with 5 for 50 from 21 disciplined overs as the President's XI – basically a Guyana 2nd XI – were shot out for 168 in their second innings on the third and final day. As the Indians had led by 130 after the first innings, they needed to score only 39 runs to complete a morale-boosting victory. They managed it for the loss of one wicket – Deep Dasgupta for 19 – before Shiv Sunder Das (18*) hit the winning runs.

Zaheer Khan, the left-arm seamer, was the other successful bowler in the morning session. He captured the last two wickets and finished with 2 for 37.

The President's XI resumed at 52 for 5. Kumble kept a tidy line and length to keep pressure on the batsmen, and bagged three more wickets to add to his overnight pair. But the Indians' hopes of recording an innings were dashed by Guyana's wicketkeeper Vishal Nagamootoo – the brother of Test legspinner Mahendra – who hit 11 fours in a defiant 107-ball innings of 78 to force the tourists to bat again.

Nagamootoo received valuable support from the late order – he put on 37 for the seventh wicket with Damodar Dasrath (22), and 30 for the eighth with Reon Griffith (3). Nagamootoo offered just one chance in his 115-minute knock – he was dropped by VVS Laxman at second slip off Zaheer – but he had 76 at the time and had already staved off the innings defeat.

It wasn't an expensive miss. Nagamootoo had made only two more when he drove Zaheer low to mid-on, where Javagal Srinath pulled off a good catch.

As preparation for the Test this match was of limited value. The Indian bowlers weren't unduly tested by the second-string Guyanese team, and only Sanjay Bangar of the batsmen made the most of his opportunity, with a three-hour 76. Sourav Ganguly (52) and Laxman (43) threw their wickets away when set, while Sachin Tendulkar (18) and Rahul Dravid (2) never even got that far.

Teams
Guyana Board President's XI 1 Travis Dowlin (capt), 2 Andrew Gonsalves, 3 Krishna Arjune, 4 Narsingh Deonarine, 5 Homchand Pooran, 6 Damodar Dasrath, 7 Vishal Nagamootoo (wk), 8 Hemnarine Harinarine, 9 Kevin Basil, 10 Reon Griffith, 11 Rayon Thomas.

Indians 1 SS Das, 2 Deep Dasgupta (wk), 3 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Rahul Dravid, 6 VVS Laxman, 7 Sanjay Bangar, 8 Anil Kumble, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Javagal Srinath, 11 Zaheer Khan.

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