Australia 333 & 240 ( 76.3ov, Hussey 89, Ponting 60,Pattinson 37*, Yadav 4/70, Zaheer Khan 3/53) def India 282 & 169 (47.5 ov, Tendulkar 32, Ashwin 30, Pattinson 4/53, Siddle 3/42) by 122 runs: T1/4 D4/5 at the MCG. Australia lead series 1-0 with 3 matches to play.
Today only 12 wickets fell for 230 runs compared to yesterday's 15/247. Australia, mostly through the tail after Mike Hussey added only 10 and was dismissed for 89/ 151b (9x4) added 2/61 whereas India's strong (if only on paper) batting failed in the face of an always persistent and mostly hostile Australian pace attack: James Pattinson augmented his second innings 37* with 4/53, Peter Siddle 3/42 kept chipping away (and at times lifted his pace) while Ben Hilfenhaus 2/39 from 18 overs never looked far away from taking a wicket.
I didn't expect this result, or at least the margin of victory. First thoughts are that it was the bowling of both sides which kept them in with a chance...until this afternoon's Indian meltdown, when Hilfenhaus, Siddle and Pattinson together trumped, or were permitted by India's batting lineup, to trump Umesh Yadav, Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma.
In truth the result exaggerated the difference between the two teams, which means that we can hope for a more .even sided contest at Sydney inthe new year.
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