October 22, 2007	Monday	Shawwal 9, 1428

MUMBAI, Oct 21: India justified their tag of world champions with a seven-wicket thrashing of Australia in the one-off Twenty20 international here at the Brabourne Stadium on Saturday (also partly reported in Sunday’s edition).

Opening batsman Gautam Gambhir top-scored with a 52-ball 63 and helped the hosts overhaul Australia’s total of 166-5 in 20 overs with 11 balls to spare in the one-sided contest.

Yuvraj Singh, India’s hero at the World Twenty20 Championship in South Africa last month, chipped in with an unbeaten 31 inclusive of three mighty sixes and one four while Robin Uthappa added a valuable 35.

The Indians, who were barely tested in the game, regaled the boisterous 30,000 crowd with a victory parade reminiscent of the celebrations after their triumphant return from South Africa.

“We were superb today. We wanted to prove that we are the world champions and we did just that,” Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said.

Gambhir, the top-scorer for India in South Africa with a tally of 227 runs from seven matches, missed out on the last four matches of the preceding one-day series which Australia won 4-2 on Wednesday.

“We gave away too many extras. The Indians bowled and batted well, they deserved to win the game,” Australian skipper Ricky Ponting said.

The match, played in an electric atmosphere indicative of the growing popularity of the slam-bang version of the game, also remained largely incident free barring the occasional booing of Andrew Symonds.

Indians overcame the early loss of Virender Sehwag, who was caught by wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist off speedster Brett Lee for five, to plunder 100 runs in the first ten overs.

Uthappa made a 26-ball 35 with six fours and put on 82 runs in 65 balls with Gambhir before being caught behind the stumps off part-time bowler Michael Clarke.

Earlier, Australia who lost to India in the semi-finals of the World Twenty20 Championship, relied on Ponting’s 53-ball 76 to put up a challenging total.

Scoreboard

AUSTRALIA:

A.C. Gilchrist b R.P. Singh 12

M.L. Hayden b Harbhajan 17

R.T. Ponting b Pathan 76

A. Symonds run out 20

B.J. Hodge b Pathan 2

M.J. Clarke not out 25

B.J. Haddin not out 5

EXTRAS (LB-2, W-7) 9

TOTAL (for five wkts, 20 overs) 166

FALL OF WKTS: 1-12, 2-60, 3-110, 4-116, 5-158.

DID NOT BAT: B. Lee, B.W. Hilfenhaus, N.W. Bracken, S.R. Clark.

BOWLING: R.P. Singh 4-0-39-1 (1w); Sreesanth 4-0-47-0 (2w); Irfan Pathan 4-0-34-2; Harbhajan Singh 4-0-17-1; Kartik 4-0-27-0.

INDIA:

G. Gambhir c Ponting b Hilfenhaus 63

V. Sehwag c Gilchrist b Lee 5

R.V. Uthappa c Gilchrist b Clarke 35

Yuvraj Singh not out 31

M.S. Dhoni not out 9

EXTRAS (LB-12, W-9, NB-3) 24

TOTAL (for three wkts, 18.1 overs) 167

FALL OF WKTS: 1-20, 2-102, 3-143.

DID NOT BAT: R.P. Sharma, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, M. Kartik, R.P. Singh, S. Sreesanth.

BOWLING: Lee 3.1-0-35-1 (1nb, 1w); Bracken 2-0-19-0 (1w); Hilfenhaus 4-0-28-1 (2nb); Clark 4-0-33-0 (2w); Symonds 3-0-26-0; Clarke 2-0-14-1.

RESULT: India won by seven wickets

UMPIRES: A.M. Saheba and S.L. Shastri (both India).

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

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

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Gautam Gambhir.

—AFP