MELBOURNE, Dec 30: Ricky Ponting scored a career-best 257 and then 31 not out to guide Australia to a nine-wicket victory in the third Test against India on Tuesday as Australia levelled the four-match series one-all.

Set 95 to win, Australia reached 97 for one as Man-of-the-Match Ponting swept a boundary to fine leg 21 minutes before lunch on the fifth day’s play.

Australia’s hopes of regaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy now rest with the fourth Test in Sydney starting on Friday, which will also be retiring captain Steve Waugh’s farewell match.

India paceman Ajit Agarkar struck an early blow by trapping opener Justin Langer (2) leg before wicket with the total on nine in the fifth over of the morning on Tuesday.

However, powerful left-hander Matthew Hayden hit nine fours in his unbeaten 53 to take the tension out of the match for Australia.

Waugh, 38, the most-capped player in Test history and the game’s most successful captain, led his side on a farewell lap of Melbourne Cricket Ground before a crowd of 29,262, boosted by a decision by officials to offer free entry on the last day.

“It’s going to be a great occasion and there’s a lot hanging on it,” Waugh said of this week’s Sydney Test.

Paceman Brad Williams took four for 53 to help bowl India out for 286 at the close of the fourth day’s play on Monday.

Rahul Dravid scored a defiant 92 in India’s second innings on Monday before expressing his disappointment that the tourists could not put another hundred runs on the board.

The match belonged to Ponting, who became the first player since Australia’s Don Bradman in the 1930 Ashes series in England to score three double-centuries in a calendar year.

Ponting, who also made 206 in the second Test against West Indies earlier this year, was Test cricket’s highest scorer in 2003 with 1,503 runs.

Scoreboard

INDIA (1st Innings) 366 (V. Sehwag 195).