Tendulkar masters India's maiden ODI series win in Australia

Master blaster Sachin Tendulkar might have fallen nine runs short of scoring back-to-back hundreds against Australia but he realised the long cherished dream of millions of Indians back home as he propelled India to emboss its maiden historical ODI series win in Australia.

Men in blue romped home after registering a stimulating close 9-run victory over formidable Aussies in the second of the best of three finals of the Commonwealth Bank tri-series final played at Brisbane on Tuesday.

Tendulkar, whose unbeaten 117 guided India to a six-wicket win in Sunday’s first final, scored 91 on Tuesday as he put the visitors on track for 258 for nine after skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat.

Australia was in a must-win situation to stay afloat in the finals, but the world champs faltered at the doorstep of final junction. The young Indian Turks created history after beating Aussies in their own backyard.

Australia last back-to-back series loss was way back in 1983-84 and 1984-85 against mighty West Indies and now they lost the series after a gap of 23 years from the hands of India which is really a mega blow for the world champs.

Chasing 259, Australia found it hard to recover from the early setbacks of losing Adam Gilchrist (2) and skipper Ricky Ponting for one. Tested Matthew Hayden (55) came to the fore with a brilliant half-century knock providing the Aussies much-needed resistance but was unlucky as he got run out on a mix-up and later Indian bowlers ripped the tail apart to clinch historical victory

Irfan Pathan came back well to pick two crucial wickets in the final over with Australia needing 13 to win in Brisbane. Earlier, Praveen Kumar took 4-46 breaking Aussie spine, including Gilchrist (2) and Ponting (1) to push Australia on back foot as they were reeling at 8-2 at one stage.

Irfan Pathan turned the winds of victory towards India as he removed Nathan Bracken (1) and putting an end to James Hopes' valiant 63-run knock in four balls as Australia was bowled out for 249 with two balls to spare.

Clarke survived an lbw appeal initially while Hayden was dropped when he edged Sreesanth and Dhoni put down a chance after he dived in front of first slip and eventually guided the ball onto Tendulkar's shoulder. Tendulkar left the field immediately and did not return till the end.

Kumar took his revenge as he castled Clarke on 17 to put Australia further in trouble at 32-3.

Symonds and Hayden resurrected the fightback with an 89-run partnership before Harbhajan dismissed both of them in quick time. Hayden got run out at the non-striker's end after mix-up with Symonds while Harbhajan trapped Symonds lbw as Australia stumbled from 121-3 to 123-5.

Australia again tried to stage a comeback after Mike Hussey (44) and Hopes put on 76 runs for the sixth wicket to take the teams total to 199 in the 42nd over before Hussey got snick to Sreesanth and was caught behind.

Hopes never gave up as he hit a six in the penultimate over, leaving Australia needing 14 runs in the last over to level the series but Pathan washed away all the Australian dreams by picking up two crucial wickets providing a lethal blow to the Aussies.

Earlier, Tendulkar stitched a 94-run opening stand with Robin Uthappa (30) and again a 54-run third wicket partnership with Yuvraj Singh, who returned to form with 38 from 33 balls.

Tendulkar missed out his 43rd ODI century as he fell nine runs short. Skipper Ponting held on a great catch at short mid-on off Clarke's bowling to depart master blaster.

Bracken removed Irfan Pathan (12) and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (36) in the 48th over and Praveen Kumar (7) in the last over to return with a figures of 3-31.

SCOREBOARD
India innings RV Uthappa c Hopes b Clark 30 SR Tendulkar c Ponting b Clarke 91 G Gambhir c Johnson b Clarke 15 Yuvraj Singh c Hayden b Symonds 38 MS Dhoni c Clarke b Bracken 36 RG Sharma c Symonds b Clarke 2 IK Pathan b Bracken 12 Harbhajan Singh lbw b Lee 3 P Kumar c Ponting b Bracken 7 Piyush Chawla not out 6 S Sreesanth not out 1

Extras: 17 (lb 5, w 12) Total: 258 for 9 wickets in 50 overs. Fall of wickets: 1-94, 2-121, 3-175, 4-205, 5-209, 6-237, 7-240, 8-249 and 9-255

Bowling B Lee 10 0 58 1 5.80 (1w) NW Bracken 9 1 31 3 3.44 SR Clark 6 0 32 1 5.33 (1w) MG Johnson 6 0 33 0 5.50 (8w) JR Hopes 6 0 20 0 3.33 MJ Clarke 10 0 52 3 5.20 (1w) A Symonds 3 0 27 1 9.00 (1w)
Australia innings (Target: 259 runs from 50 overs) AC Gilchrist c Dhoni b Kumar 2 ML Hayden run out (Yuvraj Singh 55 RT Ponting c Yuvraj Singh b Kumar 1 MJ Clarke b Kumar 17 A Symonds lbw b Harbhajan Singh 42 MEK Hussey c Dhoni b Sreesanth 44 JR Hopes c Piyush Chawla b Pathan 63 B Lee b Kumar 7 MG Johnson c Dhoni b Sreesanth 8 NW Bracken c Piyush Chawla b Pathan 1 SR Clark not out 0

Extras: 9 (lb 2, w 7) Total: 249 all out in 49.4 overs. Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-8, 3-32, 4-121, 5-123, 6-199, 7-228, 8-238, 9-247 and 10-249

Bowling O M R W Econ P Kumar 10 2 46 4 4.60 S Sreesanth 9 0 43 2 4.77 (2w) IK Pathan 8.4 0 54 2 6.23 (4w) Harbhajan Singh 10 0 44 1 4.40 (1w) Piyush Chawla 9 0 45 0 5.00 Yuvraj Singh 3 0 15 0 5.00

Toss: India won the toss and chose to bat first Series: India won the best-of-three-finals 2-0 Man of the match: P Kumar (India) Man of the series: NW Bracken (Australia) Umpires: AL Hill (New Zealand) and SJA Taufel TV Umpire: BNJ Oxenford Match Referee: JJ Crowe (New Zealand)