were manhandled by Central Counties champions Western Stars, who strolled to a seven wicket victory at St. John's Field yesterday.

Stars' skipper Arnold Manders led the way, grabbing two wickets before stroking an unbeaten half century.

Just as was the case in Monday's match against Somerset, the visitors won the toss and elected to bat on a soggy pitch aiding the slower bowlers.

And the decision appeared a good one -- at least at first -- as openers Gagan Malik and Kiran Kumar, despite being unable to get the ball away with regularity, plodded their way to 30 before being parted.

Malik, reed thin and tall, was the more aggressive of the pair, stroking his way to 25 while Kiran held up the opposite end, notching six runs before he fell to a fine caught and bowled manoeuvre by Brangman.

Circumstances, though, could have been much different as, apart from some good work in the field by Jeff Richardson and Cleon Scotland, the home side were guilty of poor out-cricket.

Benefitting most was Malik, who lived a charmed life, surviving two catch attempts.

Even Malik's eventual dismissal was of a bizarre nature as Brangman got a ball to move away from the bat and get an edge, only to have the ball glance off the right glove of wicket-keeper Anthony Manders forcing Albert Steede to make a diving grab at second slip.

Vinay Kumar (3) was then partnered by captain Vikram Man Singh (24), but this union was short lived as the former became the first of Arnold Manders' victims.

At 34 for three Hyderabad were in dire straits, with the front-line batsmen back in the pavilion and a painfully slow scoring rate. But rather than go into a defensive mode, the Indians increasingly threw caution to the wind and began to batter the bowling although wickets still fell at regular intervals.

Managing double figures were Sarinda Khanna (10), Naresh Sharma (14), Abrar Ahmed (23) and Rehman (25).

Brangman, who surrendered a gaudy 21 runs in his final over, ended with two wickets from his 10 overs, while Hoyt Zuill, Wayne Richardson and Hassan Durham snatched one apiece.

Treadwell Gibbons was the lone failure among Stars' bats, managing just three before he was caught near the backward square-leg boundary while attempting to pull first change bowler Phaninder Prakash.

Finding things more to his liking was Smith, who dashed to 40 before retreating and playing a ball from Abrar Ahmed onto his wicket. He and Steede (43) had put on 45 runs for the second wicket before the mishap.

This paved the way for Manders and after enduring a few anxious moments the Stars captain exploded, launching a devastating display of power strokes, with four sixes and an equal number of fours flowing from the bat.

He and Steede, who lashed out for one six and five twos, carried Stars to within a run of victory before Steede danced out to a delivery from Sridhar, missed and was comprehensively bowled.

Fittingly, it was Manders notching the winning run to end a very productive day. Today the visitors take on the Bermuda youth team at Devonshire Rec.