Leicester, Aug 30: The Indians managed to win their third successive warm-up game before their sole T20 international against England at Old Trafford, Manchester tomorrow. In their final practice game, which involved a T20 game against newly crowned Friends Life t20 champions Leicestershire, the Indians beat their opponents by 15 runs after notching up a score of 161 while batting first.

With MS Dhoni not playing, the Indians were captained by Suresh Raina for this warm-up outing. Leicestershire won the toss and put the Indians in to bat. The visitors put up a competitive score of 161 thanks to useful contributions from their top-order batsmen. Parthiv Patel, who opened the innings with Ajinkya Rahane (19 off 13), scored 40 off 31 balls. Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma scored 29 runs each while Raina remained unbeaten on 21 off just 14 deliveries.

Leicestershire, in reply, started on a positive note. They were 48 for one by the end of the Powerplay with Andrew McDonald and Will Jefferson taking charge of the run chase. But then Jefferson (20 off 15) was trapped lbw by Amit Mishra and the hosts lost a few quick wickets thereafter. McDonald himself was dismissed for a 34-ball 44 in this period and with Paul Nixon (six off 15) unable to contribute, Leicestershire were in all kinds of trouble at 94 for five in 13.3 overs.

The dangerous Abdul Razzaq played a couple of big shots; he bludgeoned Varun Aaron for 14 runs in his third over and even hit Praveen Kumar for six. However, Leicestershire’s hopes of a win went when he was caught in the deep by Virat Kohli off R Ashwin on 37 off 29 balls.

With the hosts needing 33 off the last two overs, Ashwin and R Vinay Kumar (three for 29) bowled superbly to keep Leicestershire under check while conceding just 17 runs.

Brief scores: Indians161 for 5 (Parthiv 40, Rohit 29, Joshua Cobb 2-22) beat Leicestershire 146 for 7 (Andrew McDonald 44, R Vinay Kumar 3-29, A Mishra 2-19) by 15 runs