India produced an impressive performance in the field to beat Leicestershire by 15 runs at Grace Road in their final warm-up game before the NatWest International T20 against England on Wednesday.

Leicestershire, fielding 10 of the side that won the Friends Life t20 final against Somerset on Saturday, were pegged back to 146 for seven as they chased a victory target of 162.

Put into bat, India posted 161 for five in front of a capacity crowd of more than 6,000. Opener Parthiv Patel top-scored with 40 off 31 balls to boost his chances of making the starting line-up against England.

Australian Andrew McDonald was Leicestershire's top-scorer with 44 before becoming one of three victims for Vinay Kumar, while off-spinner Amit Mishra took 2-19 in four tidy overs.

Abdul Razzaq hit a typically aggressive 37 off 24 balls for Leicestershire but it was not enough to keep them up with the rate and they were left requiring 25 runs off the final over, which proved to be well beyond their reach.

India, without Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, made a blistering start to their innings as Parthiv and Ajinkya Rahane put on 52 in less than six overs.

Parthiv was the dominant partner with a succession of fine shots off Matthew Hoggard and Razzaq, but the latter finally broke the opening stand when he had Rahane brilliantly caught at short third man by Jigar Naik.

The introduction of McDonald saw Parthiv go with the total at 73, having hit six boundaries. Attempting another big hit, he was caught at deep midwicket by Will Jefferson.

Rahul Dravid made an elegant 29 but, for the first time in the warm-up games, Virat Kohli failed to reach a half-century, caught at long-on off the bowling of Naik.

Rohit Sharma boosted the scoring rate with 29 off 21 balls, including two successive sixes off Wayne White, before holing out to McDonald off Josh Cobb.

India's total was a competitive one and the early departure of Cobb, who had his middle stump knocked back by Praveen Kumar, put the county side on the back foot.

McDonald and Jefferson briefly looked to have put Leicestershire back in the game with some big hitting until the latter was out lbw trying to sweep Mishra.

McDonald's dismissal, bowled by Vinay Kumar, gave India the initiative and when Razzaq went, caught in the deep off Ravichandran Ashwin, it ended Leicestershire's hopes.

Vinay Kumar finished with 3-29 but Mishra looked the most impressive performer.

Gambhir, still suffering problems after his head injury in the last npower Test against England, is to have a further examination before a decision is made on whether he will feature at Old Trafford.