~~India Vs. Australia House~~ - Page 4

Symonds put India's bowlers to the sword with some big hitting

Symonds smashed nine fours and four sixes in his 88-ball knock while Adam Gilchrist made 51 and Ricky Ponting 49.

Sachin Tendulkar (86) put on 140 with Sourav Ganguly (72) but Hogg profited from poor shots to leave India reeling.

Robin Uthappa hammered 44 off 28 balls to give them a chance but once he was caught the hosts faded away to 299-7.

After Ponting won the toss, Michael Clarke was caught behind off left-armer Zaheer Khan in the first over.

But Gilchrist, who was dropped on 16 by Rahul Dravid at gully off Sree Santh, struck eight boundaries and put on 96 with Ponting, who lashed seven fours and a six.

The duo fell in quick succession, Ponting edging off-spinner Harbhajan Singh to Dravid at slip and Gilchrist driving paceman Irfan Pathan to Robin Uthappa in the covers.

India's spinners were on top when Murali Kartik removed Brad Hodge to make it 129-4, but Symonds cut loose as he shared 75 with Brad Haddin and 90 with James Hopes (39).

Symonds was dropped by Santh aiming to sweep Harbhajan when on two but other than he was was merciless on the Indians - one straight six off slow left-armer Kartik nearly cleared the ground.

He reached his sixth ODI century as 102 runs came in the final 10 overs but India's experienced opening duo replied in kind.

Ganguly, who was once again strong in his favoured region square on the off-side, flayed two boundaries off Mitchell Johnson in the second over and Tendulkar crashed three successive fours off Brett Lee.

Tendulkar and Ganguly both reached their half centuries by swinging sixes off Hogg but the former was stumped off James Hopes when he lost balance trying to flick a leg-side delivery.

Irfan Pathan continued the assault by hammering Bracken down the ground and heaving Symonds for maximums in his run-a-ball 29 before cutting Hogg to point.

And the left-armer put his side in charge by having Ganguly snapped up at wide long-off, trapping Yuvraj Singh lbw with a low full-toss and seeing Rahul Dravid hole out to long-on.

The game and series looked up for the hosts but Uthappa and Mahendra Dhoni (26) launched a ferocious assault, flaying the ball to all parts to leave Ponting scratching his head.

Dhoni dispatched Lee over long-off for six, while Uthappa deposited Clarke over exta-cover and Bracken down the ground for maximums as 50 runs were garnered in only four overs.

Lee in explicably dropped a sitter when Uthappa flipped Johnson down to fine-leg but the left-arm paceman was soon celebrating when Hopes and Ponting held on to steeplers during a double-wicket maiden to end any doubt.