October 18, 2007	Thursday	Shawwal 5, 1428

MUMBAI, Oct 17: Indian spinner Murali Kartik put in an exceptional all-round performance to fashion India's two-wicket win in the seventh and final One-day International against Australia here on Wednesday.

The 31-year-old picked a career-best 6-27 before scoring a cameo 21 under pressure to gift India a consolatory win in the seven-match series which Australia clinched 4-2. The opener was abandoned due to rain.

Coming in at 143-8, Kartik shared an unbeaten 52-run stand with Zaheer Khan (31 not out) as India overhauled Australia's modest total of 193 with 24 balls to spare in the day-night game.

Mitchell Johnson picked best figures of 3-46 for the visitors while Nathan Bracken took 2-30.

Indians fumbled in their chase, losing six wickets with just 64 on the board. Saurav Ganguly was out for a duck off the fourth ball of the innings while Sachin Tendulkar played onto his stumps for 21 on his home ground.

The other senior player of the team – Rahul Dravid – was benched, for only the second time in his career, following his prolonged form slump. In the last nine innings, the batsman averaged 8.8 with three ducks.

His replacement Dinesh Karthik failed to do much, being dismissed for a duck by Johnson who also accounted for Ganguly.

But Robin Uthappa salvaged the innings with a 59-ball 47 inclusive of four fours and two sixes while also adding 65 runs with Harbhajan Singh for the seventh wicket.

Adam Gilchrist took four catches, the last of which took him to a record 400-mark.

Earlier, Man-of-the-Match Kartik flummoxed the Australians in a sensational spell of slow bowling which saw him miss out on hat-tricks twice.

He dismissed Brad Hodge (16) and Andrew Symonds off the last two balls of the 20th over before returning to send back Brad Haddin (19), Brad Hogg and Brett Lee in the 32nd.

James Hopes (22) became the sixth victim of the bowler who was picked midway through the series after 20 months in wilderness.

Kartik's figures just fell short of the best-ever by an Indian spinner, a record held by Anil Kumble who took 6 for 12 against West Indies in Kolkata in 1993.

Captain Ricky Ponting top-scored with 57 off 78 balls with nine fours and shared two half-century stands with Gilchrist (19) and Hodge to lend respectability to the total after electing to bat on a lively wicket.

The visitors got away to a poor start, losing Michael Clarke off the very first ball by left-arm seamer Zaheer.

Ponting though looked in glorious touch, racing to his half-century with the help of nine fours to become the first one-day captain to score 50 fifties.

New Zealand's former captain Stephen Fleming is second in the list with 45.

Hodge failed yet again to find form when he offered a tame catch in the slips while Symonds, who had smashed an unbeaten 107 in the previous game at Nagpur, was caught by Tendulkar.

Symonds, in the news for his run-ins with Indian players and allegedly being the target of racial abuse during the fifth game at Vadodara, was booed by a section of the 40,000-strong crowd as he made his ground.

The two teams will square off in a Twenty20 game here on Saturday, their last encounter in an eventful series.

Scoreboard

AUSTRALIA:

M.J. Clarke lbw b Zaheer 0

A.C. Gilchrist c Harbhajan b Pathan 19

R.T. Ponting c Dhoni b R.P. Singh 57

B.J. Hodge c Karthik b Kartik 16

A. Symonds c Tendulkar b Kartik 0

B.J. Haddin lbw b Kartik 19

J.R. Hopes b Kartik 22

G.B. Hogg c Uthappa b Kartik 0

B. Lee c R.P. Singh b Kartik 0

M.G. Johnson not out 24

N.W. Bracken c Harbhajan b R.P. Singh 3

EXTRAS (B-4, LB-3, w26) 33

TOTAL (all out, 41.3 overs) 193

FALL OF WKTS: 1-0, 2-60, 3-117, 4-117, 5-126, 6-162, 7-162, 8-162, 9-177.

BOWLING: Zaheer Khan 9-1-22-1 (5w); R.P. Singh 8.3-1-59-2 (9w); Irfan Pathan 5-0-23-1; Ganguly 2-0-24-0 (3w); Harbhajan Singh 7-0-31-0 (1w); Kartik 10-3-27-6.

INDIA:

S.C. Ganguly c Gilchrist b Johnson 0

S.R. Tendulkar b Lee 21

K.D. Karthik c Gilchrist b Johnson 0

Yuvraj Singh c Gilchrist b Bracken 15

R.V. Uthappa lbw b Clarke 47

M.S. Dhoni c Gilchrist b Bracken 5

Irfan Pathan c Clarke b Hopes 0

Harbhajan Singh c Ponting b Johnson 19

Zaheer Khan not out 31

M. Kartik not out 21

EXTRAS (B-4, LB-12, W-20) 36

TOTAL (for eight wkts, 46 overs) 195

FALL OF WKTS: 1-3, 2-8, 3-38, 4-49, 5-63, 6-64, 7-129, 8-143.

DID NOT BAT: R.P. Singh.

BOWLING: Lee 10-1-37-1 (3w); Johnson 10-0-46-3 (9w); Bracken 10-3-30-2; Hopes 5-0-13-1; Hogg 8-0-40-0 (3w); Clarke 3-0-13-1.

RESULT: India won by two wickets, Australia clinch series 4-2.

UMPIRES: A.M. Saheba (India) and Aleem Dar (Pakistan).

TV UMPIRE: G.A. Pratapkumar (India).

MATCH REFEREE: B.C. Broad (England).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Murali Kartik.

MAN-OF-THE-SERIES: Andrew Symonds.

—AFP