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A lovely hundred-run partnership between India's new opening combination - Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa helped India to a comfortable seven-wicket win over hosts Scotland. In the Only ODI played at Glasgow, the hosts Scotland made good account of themselves in all the three departments of the game to make India work for their win.

Everybody were just lucky to have the match to get underway on time without many issues. The recent rains meant that the outfield was a heavy one at the Clydesdale Cricket Club in Titwood and the wicket expected to be damp. Rahul Dravid therefore elected to put his opposition to bat first after resting Tendulkar, Ganguly and Zaheer. Surprisingly, there was no place for Rohit Sharma. After an erratic start of spraying the ball too wide, Ajit Agarkar got his act right to get Navdeep Poonia struck in front of the stumps in the 5th over by which most runs had come only from the wides. Soon the homeside were reduced to 49 for 4 with RP Singh taking two wickets and the comeback man Munaf picking up the wicket of Ryan Watson (24), the Scotland Skipper, caught playing the pick up shot.

A rain interruption during the 22nd over reduced the match to 48 overs per side when Scotland were 68 for 4. The next phase of the game belonged to Scotland with former England player Gavin Hamilton and Neil McCallum dishing out a fifty-run stand for the fifth wicket. McCallum's important wicket was taken by Piyush Chawla after the right hander had got 41 from 65 balls with 3 fours and a monstrous six off Ramesh Powar. Piyush Chawla got another wicket to end an impressive bowling spell of 2 for 42 in his 10 overs. Gavin Hamilton took Scotland in the slogs before rain once again interrupted the proceedings to reduce the match to 46 overs per side. Hamilton got out for 44 from 78 with 3 fours after play resumed. Towards the end, it was former captain Craig Wright playing some spanking shots to take Scotland to a competitive 203 for 9 in 46 overs. Wright made 37 from 34 with 2 fours and a six. Ajit Agarkar struggled in his hands going for 54 in his 9 overs taking two wickets. RP Singh with 2 for 26 and Munaf Patel with 2 for 36 in their respective 9 overs bowled steadily.

The Indian openers - Gambhir and Uthappa had to survive some nice seaming deliveries early on from Paul Hoffman, who was playing his last ODI and John Blain. Having played out a few quite overs, the pair decided to take the attack to the opposition and there was no looking back after that. The running between the wickets between these two was very energetic with quick singles stolen and the extra stretch for the extra run was a delight to watch. Uthappa having reached his fifty couldn't convert that into a bigger one as he got cleaned up by an inswinger from Craig Wright. Uthappa struck 55 in 62 balls with 8 fours and a six which was a pull shot having stepped down the track to a pace bowler. India were off to a flier at 104 for 1 in over 20 overs. There was the need to keep the scoreboard at a good rate as there was always the rain threat around. Dinesh Karthik, who had come in at no.3 fell for 14 from 26 to the off spin of Majid Haq.

Yuvraj Singh got promoted ahead of Dravid and he put on a 61-run partnership with Gambhir that took India close to the victory target which was a revised one at 209. Yuvraj played right across a full delivery from John Blain to be dismissed for a rapid 38 from 25 with 5 fours and a massive six which made it difficult for Gautam Gambhir to complete a third century in his ODI Career. Rahul Dravid remained unbeaten on 10 from 8 with 2 fours including the winning boundary. Gambhir was stranded on a well compiled 85 from 115 which had 8 fours and a six from Hoffman's bowling over long off. Gambhir was rewarded as the Player of the Match.

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