India beat Australia in Twenty-20

MUMBAI: A cracking innings by opener Gautam Gambhir led India to a comfortable seven-wicket win with 11 balls to spare against Australia on Saturday in a one-off Twenty-20 international at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai, the first ever in India.

Gambhir's fearless approach put the pressure on the Australians who were defending a 166-run total. India are the World Twenty-20 champions and Australia, 4-2 victors in the recent limited-over international series, were keen to take them. Gambhir smashed 63 runs in 52 balls with six boundaries and one six before he was caught by Ponting off Ben Hilfenhaus in the 16th over.

But by then the damage was already done. Aggressive batting by Gambhir and Robin Uthappa helped India race to 100 in 10 overs after opener Virender Sehwag was out cheaply in the third over. Hard running between the wickets and some sweetly timed cover drives were a feature of their match-winning 82-run partnership.

When the Australian fast bowlers could not make an impact, skipper Ricky Ponting brought in part-time spinner Michael Clarke to stop the flow of runs. Clarke immediately picked up the vital wicket of Uthappa, but the hard-hitting batsman had made his mark putting on 35 runs off 26 balls with six boundaries.

Uthappa's exit did not break the momentum as the powerful Yuvraj Singh continued the domination of the Indian batsmen. The match slipped out of Australia's hands as Singh repeatedly got the crowd to its feet with three sixes and a boundary in his rapid-fire 31 runs off 25 balls.

Australia missed the services of specialist spinner Brad Hogg who had been rested. The visitors had elected to bat and posted a fighting total of 166 for five led by Ponting. The captain was in cracking form, pulling and lofting the ball to the boundary. His 76 runs in 53 balls saw him hit 13 boundaries before being bowled by paceman Irfan Pathan in his last over.

After Ponting, the main run scorers for Australia were Michael Clarke (25 off 15 balls) and Andrew Symonds (20 off 18). Symonds was run out after putting up a third-wicket 50-run partnership with Ponting. In the next over, a struggling Brad Hodge was dismissed by Pathan.

Following an aggressive start, the quick fall of wickets toward the end of the innings slowed the Australians preventing them from getting regular boundary hits. Earlier, openers Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden began with some imperious stroke play, but India struck with early wickets.

Gilchrist (12) hit three boundaries in the first over off pace bowler Rudra Pratap Singh till a fifth ball yorker took out his middle stump.

Hayden (17) was the next to go, an inside edge off Harbhajan Singh and Australia were two wickets down with 60 on the board after seven overs. Tight bowling by off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and Murali Kartik, making his Twenty-20 debut, frustrated the Australian batsmen.