Famous Victory At Gabba

Yet another superb batting display marked by an unbeaten century by man-of-the-matchV.V.S. Laxman, and excellent bowling by rookies L. Balaji and Irfan Pathan, enabled India to beat world champions Australia on their homesoil after a gap of 12 years before a capacity crowd at the Gabba today.

India's 19-run victory in the tri-series match played under lights made amends for the debacle at Melbourne in theopening tie when the visitors frittered away a winning position to go down by 18 runs.

After posting a record 303 for four, mainly built around a heroic unbeaten 103 byLaxman, the Indian bowlers stuck to their task admirably to stop the world champions at 284 in49.4 overs despite a brilliant 109 by Matthew Hayden.

Apart from Laxman's 113-ball 103, Sachin Tendulkar defied an ankle injury to score 86 and Rahul Dravid hit a quickfire74 to provide the foundation for a rare Indian victory over the hosts who kept losing wickets at regular intervals tosuffer their first defeat in the tri-series.

The defeat notwithstanding, Australia were leading the table with 18 points from four outings followed by India's 12from three. Zimbabwe, the third team in the competition, are yet to open their account.

India's win against a full strength Australia was all the more remarkable given the fact that barring Anil Kumble andAshish Nehra, the rest of the bowlers were raw and highly inexperienced.

In the absence of an injured Ajit Agarkar, who had a career-best haul at Melbourne, rookie pacers Balajiand Pathan did well to restrict the visitors, picking up seven wickets between them.

Pathan, though proved expensive, finishing with three for 64 in his 9.4 overs while Balaji returned with four for 48 in10 overs.

Pathan's scalp included dangerous openers Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden. Pathan's third victim was Michael Clarke,who was the second highest scorer for the home team with a cameo 42.

Balaji, on ther other hand, always bowled a probing line to test most of the Australian batsmen and hardly gave awayanything with some disciplined bowling.

The Australians got off to a fliying start as the Hayden-Gilchrist duo put on 46 for the first wicket from amere 5.4 overs before the wicketkeeper-batsman's attempted pull off Pathan went into the hands of Balaji at mid-on.

Balaji himself enjoyed his best day of the summer, claiming Ricky Ponting (7) and Damien Martyn (1) in his firstspell of 7 overs for 38 runs.

Hayden then put on 47 runs for the fourth wicket with Andrew Symonds (20) before the latter became Rohan Gavaskar'smaiden victim in his very first over.

Gavaskar faced only three deliveries during India's innings but given the ball in the 23rd over struck immediatelyby diving to his right and plucking a brilliant return catch.

Great drama centred around Hayden's hundred and his dismissal a little later as Australia completed their 200 runsin the 33rd over.

He was lucky to survive a run out chance when on 98 when Yuvraj singh's throw atthe striker's end just missed the stumps with Hayden struggling to get to the crease.

The next ball Hayden struck Gavaskar in the outfield and joyously waved his bat after running for two runs only to findumpire Peter Parker declare it a run short.

The hundred came ball later when Hayden pushed it on the off-side, facing only 98 balls for his three-figure knock. Hayden then lofted a catch to long-on off Pathan but theball hit fielder Balaji's chest before trickling past the ropes. Couple of deliveries later, he edged Pathan to Dravidbehind the stumps.

The left-handed opener made 109 runs from 107 balls with 12 fours, this being his third one-day hundred in his 84thmatch.

India batted as well as they could, powered on by Laxman's third one-day hundred and his successive three-figurestands for the second and third wicket with Tendulkar and Dravid (74) to make 303 for 4, their highest ever score inAustralia and the best seen at the Gabba.

Australia's disappointment was mirrored by Brett Lee's one for 83 from his 10 overs, the worst ever bowling show byany bowler in Australia and the second worst by an Australian bowler -- topped by Lee himself who went for 85 runs againstPakistan at Cardiff, England in 2001.

Laxman, walking in to bat in the eighth over, had to compromise with his batting style as he made quite a few slogsand uncharacteristic cross-batted shots to reach his third one-day hundred from 113 balls with eight fours.

Laxman was inspired by a courageous knock from Tendulkar who hobbled on one leg, refused a runner, and still gave Indiaa base from where to aim for their best-ever total in Australia.

Tendulkar twisted his right ankle early while attempting a single in the second over but still smashed 86 from 95balls.

The little master was so much in pain that he nearly always used his bat as a crutch after playing on the front foot inhis innings. He received attention from physio Andrew Leipus, had a crepe bandaged put around his ankle at the first drinksinterval, but still batted till the 29th over when he hit a return catch off the backfoot toSymonds.

Tendulkar took a heavy toll on Lee who was smacked for 30 runs in his first three overs as India raised their firsthundred in the 19th over.

Earlier, Ganguly (18), coming out to open in the absence of Virender Sehwag, had just hit Jason Gillespie over coversfor a four and six and then smashed Brad Williams on the off-side for a four when he was taken by surprise by a liftingdelivery and lobbed up an easy return catch.

Sehwag was ruled out of the match because of a shoulder sprain.

Tendulkar and Laxman then put on 110 runs for the second wicket from 125 balls and set the launching pad whichpropelled India past their previous best of 270 in Australia -- made at the MCG at the start of the series.

Dravid seemed eager and fresh from the break of the last few days and ran brilliantly to raise his half century from amere 49 balls with three fours.

The Indian vice-captain twice put Ian Harvey away for four in the 48th over before lifting a catch straight to long offfielder, bringing to an end an entertaining stand of 133 from 118 balls.

His knock came off only 64 balls and contained four fours.

Next man Yuvraj Singh did not last long as he was yorked by Lee's last delivery of the 10th over for five.

PTI