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CHANDIGARH, India - India finally let their cricket do the talking and snapped Australia's 15-match unbeaten streak with an eight-run victory at Chandigarh's Sector 16 Stadium early this morning.
The cricket-mad nation have been impatiently waiting to celebrate their side's Twenty20 world championships victory in the 50 over format and finally got their wish in the Punjabi city.
There has been plenty of talk from the home side about showing the necessary aggression to topple Australia but it was their most disciplined performance that proved their most successful.
Australia now lead the series 2-1 with three matches to go, starting at Vadodara on Thursday.
India had only won a single match in their last ten one-dayers on home soil against Australia before today's result which breathed fresh life into the series.
Chasing 292 to win, the tourists ended up on 7-283 with James Hopes unbeaten on 22.
Matthew Hayden (92) and Andrew Symonds (75) continued to score heavily against the Indians but this time the visitors had enough runs on the board.
Hayden (92 off 92 balls) capped his brilliant run in coloured clothing by easily accumulating the 35 runs needed to overtake Mark Waugh for the most one-day international runs by an Australian in a calendar year.
Adam Gilchrist (18) fell cheaply again but Hayden set the pace as Australia sped along to 122 in the 19th over before Ricky Ponting (29) was stumped in controversial circumstances.
The Australian skipper deserved at least the benefit of the doubt in such a tight situation but the third umpire GA Pratapkumar from India sent him packing anyway.
He was understandably less than impressed with the decision and stood his ground momentarily before departing.
With the tourists having such a bright start it was always going to come down to hometown hero Harbhajan Singh (2-43 off 10 overs) to turn the game.
He did his best to send a shudder through the Australian innings by having Michael Clarke (6) caught and bowled with the total on 131.
But Hayden and Symonds steadied the innings before the opener tried his luck once too often and was caught in the deep at the picturesque stadium.
Just when Australia needed someone to knock the ball around the out-of-sorts Brad Hodge (17 off 29 balls) scratched around before Harbhajan had him stumped and there were no question marks about that decision.
Symonds and Hopes moved to within 24 runs of the target before R.P. Singh bowled the dread-locked allrounder and the match swung further India's direction next ball when Brad Hogg (0) was needlessly run out.
The Indians then turned the screws and the Australians were just unable to make the runs.
Sachin Tendulkar was earlier anything but his masterly self, grafting out a painstaking 79 from 119 balls as his teammates provided fluent cameos in their 4-291 off 50 overs, which included 31 wides.
The hard-hitting duo of Mahendra Dhoni (50no off 35 balls) and Robin Uthappa (30no off 18 balls) finished off the innings with a bang, rattling 20 runs off the final over by Nathan Bracken.
Allrounder Hopes (2-43 off nine overs) was the most effective bowler.
The niggle between the camps re-emerged briefly at the end of the 40th over with Symonds exchanging words with Tendulkar during the change of over.
However it all settled back down again soon enough.
- AAP
