West Indies, who now lead 2-0 in the seven-match series, were close to walking off after spectators threw stones onto the pitch for the second successive game. The contest had to be halted for 10 minutes early on.

``Carl Hooper told me he was perturbed by the stone-throwing,'' match referee Mike Proctor told reporters.

``Hooper said if it did happen again, he would have come off the field. Or I would have taken him off the field.''

Proctor said he would report the Nagpur incidents to the International Cricket Council (ICC), which has already sought a report from him on the crowd behaviour in the first match in Jamshedpur.

The 23-year-old Gayle did not let the disturbances upset his concentration, the Jamaican hitting 103 as the tourists romped to 280 for three with four balls left, to make light of India's 279 for nine after being asked to bat first.

The tall left-hander was out with 59 more runs needed in 8.4 overs, but Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul kept up the tempo and remained unbeaten on 39 each.

West Indies needed 11 runs from the last two overs, but Chanderpaul hit left-arm paceman Ashish Nehra for two consecutive fours in the 46th over to put the issue beyond doubt.

Gayle, who raised 134 runs for the second wicket with Marlon Samuels (52) in only 132 balls, hit eight fours and three sixes in his 116-ball knock before he was bowled leg-stump by Javagal Srinath.

The 300-wicket spin duo of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh took only one wicket for 116 runs between them in the first match in Jamshedpur and struggled for their line on a flat wicket to give away 33 and 35 runs respectively in six wicketless overs each.

The 21-year-old Samuels, in top form after scoring 100 in the Calcutta Test and 51 in Jamshedpur, again played well-timed shots and hit Virender Sehwag's off-spin for 17 runs in one over.

UNLUCKY LAXMAN
Earlier, Vangipurappu Laxman was out for an unlucky 99, one short of his second century, as he helped India recover from a precarious 20 for two in the fifth over.

He raised a record 128-run third wicket partnership with skipper Sourav Ganguly, who struck 78 for his 48th one-day fifty.

Their stand bettered the previous second-wicket best against West Indies of 120 between Krishnamachari Srikkanth and Dilip Vengsarkar at Sharjah in 1988-89.

Ganguly also completed 8 000 one-day runs when he reached 34, the ninth overall and third Indian to achieve the feat.

India's Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Azharuddin, besides Pakistan's Inzamam-ul Haq and Saeed Anwar, Sri Lanka's Aravinda de Silva and Sanath Jayasuriya, Australia's Mark Waugh and Desmond Haynes of West Indies are the others.

Laxman added another 105 from only 87 balls for the fifth wicket with Rahul Dravid, who shrugged off a stiff back to score 51. But Dravid and Laxman fell off successive balls as five wickets tumbled for just 16 runs.

The game was reduced to 47 overs a side after the start was delayed by 30 minutes due to dew on the field.

INDIA
S.Ganguly c Drakes b Nagamootoo 78

V.Sehwag c Dillon b Drakes 1

A.Agarkar c Sarwan b Dillon 6

V.Laxman st Jacobs b Gayle 99

H.Singh c sub. (Powell) b Nagamootoo 2

R.Dravid run-out 51

Y.Singh c Chanderpaul b Drakes 1

M.Kaif not out 12

J.Srinath run-out 2

A.Kumble b Drakes 2

A.Nehra not out 2

Extras: (lb-5, nb-10, w-8) 23

Total: (for nine wickets, 47 overs) 279

Bowling: Dillon 10-0-59-1 (nb-1, w-3), Drakes 9-0-55-3, Collymore 4-0-35-0 (nb-4, w-3), Hooper 9-1-42-0 (nb-3, w-2), Nagamootoo 10-0-49-2 (nb-2), Gayle 5-0-34-1.

WEST INDIES

C.Gayle b Srinath 103

W.Hinds c Agarkar b Srinath 27

M.Samuels c Kaif b Sehwag 52

R.Sarwan not out 39

S.Chanderpaul not out 39

Extras: (b-6, lb-6, nb-1, w-7) 20

Total: (for three wickets, 46.2 overs) 280

Fall of wickets: 1-42, 2-176, 3-221.

Bowling: Srinath 9.2-1-35-2 (w-1), Nehra 10-0-67-0 (w-3), Agarkar 7-0-47-0, Sehwag 8-0-51-1 (nb-1, w-1), Harbhajan 6-0-35-0 (w-1), Kumble 6-0-33-0 (w-1).

Third match, Rajkot: November 12

Fourth match, Ahmedabad: November 15

Fifth match, Baroda: November 18

Sixth match, Jodhpur: November 21

Seventh match, Vijayawada: November 24