Title-holders India reproduced the outcome of the 2000 ICC Under-19 World Cup final by beating Sri Lanka at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval in Lincoln today.

The six-wicket win puts them at the head of their group with a game to play before next week's semi-finals.

World junior record holder Deepak Chougule and stroke-playing man of the match Maninder Bisla led the way, with 47 and 49 respectively.

Bisla and India captain Parthiv Patel had given India a flyer by plundering 55 for the first wicket inside the first eight overs.

Patel made 24 in 21 balls and Bisla's 49 took 56 deliveries. Gnaneswara Rao's 30 required just 28 balls faced.

Chougule, who once scored 400 not out in a day representing Karnataka back in 1996/97, demonstrated the class that has drawn comparisons with the renowned Indian batsman Gundappa Viswanath.

Indian coach Balwinder Sandhu told CricInfo: "He's a good player and loves to stay to the end. He doesn‚t give his wicket away. But just because he's short doesn't mean he's another Viswanath."

Sri Lanka made 195 all out in 49.4 overs after being put in by India.

The useful score was down to Jeevan Mendis' third fifty of the tournament, scored off 83 balls. Nevertheless, tellingly, the 19-year-old left-hander hit no boundaries in his innings of 64.

He is having a tremendous tournament, although Sri Lanka could have done with something like the leg spin bowling performance that brought him seven for 19 last week against Zimbabwe.

Three run outs and some tight bowling from off spinner Abhishek Sharma (three for 46) at the death kept the Sri Lankans below 200.

Sandhu continued, "Bowling is our strength. Batting we have talented players, but they need some time to get organised though they're progressing into good players."

"Our batsmen are short of match practice," said the former India Test player.

One game that did not give his side much quality time in the middle was last week's shock defeat to Bangladesh in Auckland. Sandhu explained that the cracked pitch had been watered and this gave the Bangladeshis the advantage when India batted first. "We couldn't come back into the game, though our bowlers did extremely well," concluded Sandhu, hinting that little should be read into the two-wicket loss.

India play Pakistan on Thursday in a clash that is sure to make the sparks fly. Pakistan's coach Haroon Rashid has already spoken of his regret that the national senior teams will not play each other. Pakistan need a result after India and the West Indies wins today.

Sandhu said, "We are going to play it as we are going to play any other game." Although he admitted, "To play against Pakistan is quite a charge-up game. It will be and it always has been. But we're not going to give too much importance to Pakistan."

Of an end to the discord between the nations that has led to a full international cricket hiatus recently, Sandhu said, "Maybe that can happen next year in the senior World Cup. I feel happy we should be playing each other at some time. But relations have to be good. That decision has to come from government."

© CricInfo