Bristol, August 25:

Sachin Tendulkar hit 99 to lead India to a nine-run win over England that levelled the seven-match series at 1-1 on Friday.

Tendulkar and captain Rahul Dravid, who led a late flourish with 92 not out, guided India to 329-7. Munaf Patel and Piyush Chawla then took three wickets each to help restrict England to 320-8, with Ian Bell top scoring with 64. Dimitri Mascarenhas hit a late 52 off 39 balls and tailender Stuart Broad finished 29 not out.

Openers Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly put on 113 for the first wicket and India set England 330 to win even though Andrew Flintoff took five one-day wickets for the first time. Tendulkar and Ganguly were scoring at almost a run per ball when Flintoff broke the stand by having Ganguly (39) caught by Paul Collingwood.

England made one change to the team that won on Tuesday, bringing in paceman Chris Tremlett for spinner Monty Panesar. Having scored fluently with 15 fours and a six, Tendulkar sat in the 90s for almost five overs before he was out. He fended a rising delivery from Flintoff and the ball brushed his elbow for wicketkeeper Matthew Prior to take a rolling catch.

Yuvraj Singh made 49 before falling to Broad, but Dravid’s 92 off 63 balls helped India add 86 off the last 10 overs despite three more wickets to Flintoff and one to James Anderson. Meanwhile, England captain Paul Collingwood was fined 50 per cent of his match fee for a slow over-rate. Match referee Roshan Mahanama ruled that England had been three overs short of its target of bowling 50 overs.