India tamely surrender to Australia; lose by 110 runs

Brisbane: When India conceded over 100 runs in the last 10 overs, they knew that they had made a mess of the otherwise good work done in the first forty overs and chasing a mammoth target of 289 would always be going to be tough against the Australian bowling attack. But surrendering so tamely to a team which they had defeated a few days ago was something unexpected as Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team lost to Ponting boys by a huge margin of 111 runs, giving a bonus point to the Aussies in process.

The disaster struck the Men-In-Blue in the very second over when in-form Gautam Gambhir edged a Bret Lee delivery to Wade behind the stumps.  Sachin Tendulkar (3) followed soon and by the end of fifth over, Rohit Sharma (0) too was back to the pavilion with the score reading just 16.

India lost their fourth wicket when Ben Hilfenhaus had Virat Kohli caught by David Hussey at first slip at 36. Suresh Raina and skipper Dhoni did try to make some amends and added 46-run for the fifth wicket before Raina edged Christian to Wade behind the stumps. Ravindra Jadeja (18) who joined Dhoni too could not add much to the score and was caught by Peter Forrest off Starc.

And after Australian pacer Ben Hilfenhaus ended MS Dhoni's challenge (56) in the 38th over, it was just a matter of time before Australia got rid of the lower order batsmen.

Earlier, fine half-centuries by Michael Hussey and Peter Forrest and a superb 18-ball 30 by Daniel Christian powered Australia to 288 for 5. Christian and David Hussey put up 65 runs off just 36 balls as Australia scored over 100 runs in the last 10 overs.