Australia recovered from a wobbly start and smashed 110 runs in the final 10 overs to post a competitive 288 for 5 in their tri-series cricket one-dayer against India in Brisbane on Sunday.
Half centuries by Peter Forrest (52) and Mike Hussey (59) and their century stand for the fourth wicket help set the base before impressive cameos by Daniel Christian and David Hussey lifted Australia to 288 for 5.
Christian (32 off 18 balls) and Hussey (24 off 20 balls) plundered 58 runs from the final five overs, the penultimate over by Vinay Kumar yielding 18 runs.
Irfan Pathan claimed 3 for 61 and the Indian effort was generally good in the field but for sloppy work in the final overs.
Australia made a fine start before they fell into a quagmire in the first half of the innings.
David Warner and Matthew Wade had put on 70 runs for the first wicket by the 13th over before the innings almost came to a standstill.
Warner was set for a long innings with 43 from 46 balls (five fours and a six) before he tamely pushed a leg-stump half volley from Irfan Pathan to the lone fielder on the onside inside the ring.
Stand-in captain Ricky Ponting, with just 11 runs from four previous innings, looked completely out of sorts, getting off the mark of only his 13th delivery before falling on 7, caught in the deep off the probing line of Zaheer Khan.
India wrested control with only 12 runs from five overs of bowling powerplay for the wicket of Ponting, the hundred only coming up in the 25th over, the last 50 having consumed 91 deliveries.
Wade, with apparent intent to anchor the innings, had hit only one four in the first 25 overs and had 33 from 58 balls before he freed his arms and swung Suresh Raina high into the stands for six.
Teams:
Australia: Michael Clarke, Daniel Christian, Xavier Doherty, Peter Forrest, Ryan Harris, David Hussey, Michael Hussey, Brett Lee, Clint McKay, Mitchell Marsh, Mitchell Starc, Ricky Ponting(c), Matthew Wade(w), David Warner, George Bailey, Jon Holland
India: MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravichandran Ashwin, Gautam Gambhir, Ravindra Jadeja, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Parthiv Patel, Irfan Pathan, Suresh Raina, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Rahul Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Manoj Tiwary, Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav