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One of the advantages of the corporate tournament, the BCCI has said, is that it would provide adequate warm-up for Team India players ahead of their tri-series in Sri Lanka.

Rahul Dravid, making a comeback to the 50-over format, certainly got his feet moving on Wednesday evening at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Dravid, leading the India Cements side for the first time despite being employed with them for 15 years, lost the toss in their opening match against underdogs BSNL, but got almost everything right after that as his side posted a 25-run win in a match reduced to 47-overs-a-side due to rain to open their account.

Coming in to bat at No 4, one slot lower than he does for India, with the scoreboard reading a dodgy 36/2 in 8.3 overs, he posted 63 off 77 deliveries and added 127 runs with S Badrinath (90) to take his team to 253/5.

He looked solid as ever, dropping the ball at his feet and ambling for singles, stroking it through the gap for boundaries and easing the spinners away without much fuss.

BSNL skipper Joginder Singh was economical, his spell reading 7-2-14-0, while Niranjan Behera picked up two wickets.

They flattered to deceive in their chase though, losing wickets as they went for the big hits. Anshul Kapoor hit 51 from 79 balls while Joginder got a fiery 30-ball 34 with three huge sixes, but couldn't stop campaign from coming to an end.

India Cements will now take on Air India Red on Thursday to decide the semi-finalist from the group.

Brief scores: India Cements 253/5 in 47 overs ( S Badrinath 90, R Dravid 63; N Behera 3/37); Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited 228/9 in 47 overs (A Kapoor 51, J Singh 34; H Badani 2/ 26, S Kumar 2/28)