The washout ensured that India didn’t get any chance to salvage its pride, Australia eventually clinching the series with a series score line of 4-2. The two teams didn’t even leave their hotel rooms since it was drizzling continuously since morning which turned into a heavy downpour just before the scheduled start of play.

The match to be held at the DY Patil Stadium at Navi Mumbai, which was all set to host its first ODI, was of only academic interest, with Australia having taken an unassailable 4-2 lead in the seven-match series lead after winning the low-scoring sixth ODI at Guwahati on November 8.

Australia, thus, maintained their winning streak of nearly 20 years over India in the bilateral ODI series. It was in 1986-87 that India beat the visiting Australians 3-2. In the two bilateral limited-over series between the two countries before the current one, Australia had defeated India 3-2 (best-of-five) in 2000-01 and 4-2 (best-of-seven) in 2007-08.

Shane Watson was declared the Man of the Series for his outstanding contributions throughout the series with both bat and ball. He finished with 256 runs and 10 wickets in the series.

National Selection Panel chief Andrew Hilditch said that Johnson and Watson have handled a lot of workload in the last few months and they need rest to be ready for the busy summer season in Australia. “The NSP has decided Mitchell and Shane will depart India as soon as possible. Mitchell and Shane will return home to Australia to commence preparation for the three mobile Test series beginning in Brisbane on November 26 and the programme that follows,” Hilditch said in a statement.

Hilditch said that the decision was taken in view of the extremely heavy workload shouldered by the duo since the Twenty20 World Cup in May 2009, and the forthcoming Australian summer which includes six Test matches in eight weeks, ODI and Twenty20 series against the West Indies and Pakistan and a tour to New Zealand early next year.

Already, five Australian players — Brett Lee, James Hopes, Tim Paine, Moises Henriques and Peter Siddle — have returned home after picking up injuries during the course of the ongoing ODI series which the visitors have sealed in their favour with one match still to be played.

Australia won the sixth ODI in Guwahati on Sunday by a comfortable six-wicket margin and took an unassailable 4-2 lead in the seven match series. The Australian media lauded Ricky Ponting and his men for the way they have humiliated India despite being without their key players. The series win also meant that Australia consolidated their position at the top of the ODI rankings, which was under threat if India were to win the series.

“Courageous Australia remain cricket’s one-day kings after crushing upstart rivals India in a ruthless show of strength,” screamed a write-up in the Courier Mail. “India’s bold ambition to send Ricky Ponting’s men home without the number one ranking proved hollow with Australia’s six-wicket victory sealing the series and one-day bragging rights.”

Headlined ‘Jubilant Aussies take series over India’, Herald Sun newspaper said the series win by Ponting’s men would be even more devastating to the Indian psyche as it had come with a “virtual Australia-A side”.

“Dhoni’s side will be licking its wounds for a while after being bashed by a virtual Australia ‘A’ side, short of front-line names but big on heart,” it said.

“The loss of Brett Lee, Peter Siddle, Tim Paine, James Hopes and Moises Henriques only served to galvanise Ponting’s unit. Australia has depth in young talent who will not only hold the line as reinforcements but win battles of their own,” the article in the Herald Sun said. “Ponting’s injury-hit squad of ‘home brand’ warriors put India back in their box, dealing a huge psychological blow to their psyche.”

The Age lauded Ponting’s men for keeping Australia’s 13-year undefeated ODI series run in India intact. “Australia will fly out this week with both its number one ranking and 13-year unbeaten run in one-day series here intact, after taking an unassailable 4-2 lead over India,” the newspaper said. “Forty-five minutes of lethal new-ball bowling from Doug Bollinger and Mitchell Johnson paved the way for the six-wicket win at the Nehru Stadium at Guwahati.”

Dhoni’s gamble to bat first on a tricky track backfired and the match virtually slipped out of their hand in nine overs when the home side was gasping at 27 for five.

“During the toss I said that the first half hour will be crucial for us but the first 15 minutes proved more than enough,” Dhoni said after the match. “We lost quite a few wickets and after that we never really were in the game.”

With this win, Australia took an unassailable 4-2 lead in the series reaffirming their supremacy as the best team in the world. For Australia, pace duo of Doug Bollinger (5/35) and Mitchell Johnson 3/39) made merry on a wicket which offered generous movement even though Dhoni defended his decision to bat first and felt a score in the vicinity of 220 could have been enough.

“Of course, there was a bit of movement in the wicket but overall I think the Australians bowled really well. We could have batted second, looking at the conditions but then also it would have been tough because the spinners were getting great amount of turn. I think we were fortunate enough to score 170, as at one stage, even 150 was looking tough. We fell short by 50-55 runs,” Dhoni said.

The Indian captain said losing a couple of close games made all the difference in the series.

“The Mohali game followed by the Hyderabad game, we should have won both. In both the matches the Australians took the game away from us. A couple of mistakes we made in the field and we lost the games,” he added.

His counterpart Ricky Ponting, meanwhile, lauded his team for their spirited display, especially after losing some of their key players to injuries and said it was a memorable series win for him.

“I couldn’t be happier. (This is) probably one of the best series I have been involved with. It was heartening to see the boys gel as a group especially after so many injuries. The performance of the team in the last two games has been satisfying,” an ecstatic Ponting said. “It means a lot because it was a great challenge to come and beat India at their home, especially when you have not got your main players. In every match we had to change and chop players and that made it even harder. Performance of all the guys has been outstanding. The bowlers really bowled well today, Johnson and Bollinger were outstanding. Once we got the five wickets, we thought we had taken the control of the game,” Ponting said.

“It swung a little bit in the morning and was also two paced early on. But our new ball bowlers really did a great job for us,” he added about the ball.

Man-of-the-match Bollinger said he just stuck to his basics and it worked for him. “I am really happy today and it’s great to see everything coming together. I really had a great time here. I just wanted to use the conditions as much as I can and it worked,” he said.

What makes it more special for the Aussies is that they were without four key players at the beginning of the series and lost four more during the series. But they showed remarkable spirit and temperament to win the series with one match to go.

Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and to everyone’s surprise decided to bat first on a damp wicket under heavy weather conditions. India were soon reeling at 27 for 5 with the entire top order back in the hut, thanks to some outstanding swing bowling by Mitchell Johnson and Doug Bollinger. The hosts could just not recover from there, getting bowled out for a modest 170. The Aussies then chased down the target in just 41.5 overs to finish off the game and win the series.

Virender Sehwag (6) opened the Indian innings with a six over point of Mitchell Johnson in the very first over. But that’s all he could manage as Johnson cleaned him up with a fast in-swinger on the fourth ball of the over. Johnson struck again one ball later, this time with a perfect out-swinger, rattling the stumps of Gautam Gambhir (0) and India were 7-2 at the end of the first over.

Doug Bollinger then accounted for Sachin Tendulkar (10), the master playing one straight back to the bowler. Yuvraj (6) was the next to go in what may be one of the most absurd dismissals ever in the history of the game. The ball ricocheted off Yuvraj’s pad over his right shoulder and as Yuvraj, clueless about where the ball went, turned behind to place the bat back inside the crease, he pushed it back to the stumps. Raina (0) went soon caught by Hauritz at mid-on off the bowling of Johnson and India were 27-5 in the 9^th over.

At that stage, even a three digit score seemed a distant possibility for the hosts. Fortunately for them, Ravindra Jadeja (57) and Praveen Kumar (54 not out), who slammed his maiden ODI half-century, did not throw in the towel and pushed the score to 170 in 48 overs before the hosts were bowled out, once again without using up their full quota of 50 overs. With the team in dire straits, Jadeja first added 48 runs with skipper Dhoni (24) and starred in a vital 74-run stand for the eighth wicket with Praveen to save India the blushes of being bowled out under 100.

Doug Bollinger (5/35) and Mitchell Johnson (3/39) shared eight wickets between them to virtually knock India out of the game.

Chasing a modest 171 to win, Australia rode on Shane Watson’s 49 off 49 balls while skipper Ricky Ponting (25) and Cameron White (25) chipped in with useful contributions before Michael Hussey (35 not out) and Adam Voges (23 not out) guided them to a comfortable win with more than 8 overs to spare.

Harbhajan Singh tried hard to make a match out of it finishing with figures of 2 for 23 off his 10 overs but 170 was always going to be difficult to defend.

Were the conditions so bad that the ball was swinging wildly? No. Was the pitch aiding alarming movement? No. Well, there was just a little bit of movement, in the air and off the pitch. India just needed to bat through the first hour and it would have been easy pickings after that but Australia exploited the conditions superbly to bundle India out and re-affirm their supremacy in the game.

The last match of the series will be played in Mumbai on Wednesday.

Brief Scores:

Australia 172 for 4 (Watson 49, Hussey 35*) beat India 170 (Jadeja 57, Praveen 54*, Bollinger 5-35) by six wickets

Man of the Match: Doug Bollinger.

Still dejected by India’s three run defeat in Hyderabad, Jadeja said that he tried to sneak in a quick single in the 48^th over because he thought that the ball went in no man’s land and he wanted to get the strike back.

“After Sachin got out, I wanted to finish things off,” Jadeja said. “I wanted to get the strike and thought the ball was going to a no man’s land. Instead, it went straight to the fielder (Cameron White) and I had come a long distance. It was difficult to get back to the crease.”

Incidentally, Jadeja was dismissed run out in a similar fashion in the fourth one-dayer at Mohali, where India lost by 24 runs. “I feel very disappointed. We lost both the matches after getting so near,” said the youngster.

Tendulkar and Jadeja added 32 for seventh wicket at Hyderabad and with the Powerplay on, it seemed a matter of time before India clinched a memorable victory. But after Tendulkar got out scoring a superb 175, India crumbled, with Jadeja following suit in the same over. “We could have made it easily. We were 18 runs away with more than two overs remaining,” Jadeja said.

The defeat notwithstanding, one thing Jadeja said he would cherish forever is watching Tendulkar from the other end on a day that belonged to the Little Master. “It was great to play the partner’s role in that epic innings of Tendulkar. He was very supportive and on every ball he was telling me to play my natural game. He was telling me to take my strokes and building my confidence. It’s sad that we could not see the team through,” Jadeja said.

However, the Saurashtra player, who has earlier drawn a lot of praise from his Rajasthan Royals skipper Shane Warne, was confident that India would win the remaining two one-dayers to clinch the series. “(In the last match) we gave Australia a very close game and we almost won it. If we can get near to 350, it means we can chase any total,” he said confidently.

Hyderabad: It was a day when Sachin Tendulkar proved once again why he is considered the greatest batsman ever to have played the game of cricket! It was also a day when Australia proved yet again why they have been and still are the best team in the game!

For an Indian cricket fan, it was a kind of déjà vu looking at Sachin Tendulkar bat for more than one reason. Besides batting at his best and being the Sachin that we have come to almost worship over the years, it reminded me of the days when Sachin was the be all and end all of the Indian team. His dismissal meant that the Indian team had lost the match. For a long time, probably since Sourav Ganguly reinvented the Indian outfit, the Indian team had moved on from that phase. The team was not dependent on one individual. But, yesterday it seemed like those days were coming back again!

Sachin Tendulkar, in what may be called his best one-day knock till date and one of the best one-day innings ever, made a breathtaking 175 off 141 balls. Sachin almost chased down 351 on his own but he was dismissed after scoring half the runs that India needed to win the game and with the hosts needing just 19 runs off 17 balls with 4 wickets in hand to finish off the game. I would stick my neck out and say that Australia didn’t win the game after that but India managed to lose it from there by a margin of three runs giving Australia a 3-2 lead in the seven match series.

Australia won the toss and opted to bat first on a wicket which was a batsman’s paradise. Shaun Marsh obliged his captain by scoring his maiden ODI hundred while Shane Watson smashed a powerful 93 as Australia piled up a mammoth total of 350 for 4 in their 50 overs. Marsh scored a run a ball 112 and added 145 runs for the opening wicket with Shane Watson in just 25 overs.

Shane Watson set up the innings for the Aussies with a 89 ball 93 which included three sixes and nine fours.  But Shaun Marsh made full use of the two lives that he got hitting two sixes and eight fours on way to a superb century. All the other batsmen chipped in for Australia with skipper Ricky Ponting making 45 and Cameron White providing the perfect finish to the innings with a 33 ball 57 which included five huge sixes.

White and Michael Hussey (31 not out) demolished the Indian bowling adding 105 runs in the last 10 overs. For India, all the bowlers were taken to the cleaners except Harbhajan Singh who bowled a splendid spell. On a day where the opposition scored 350 runs, the wily off-spinner boasted of figures of 1 for 44 off his 10 overs.

Chasing a mammoth total of 351 against a team like Australia was never going to be easy for India. But they started off confidently, with Virender Sehwag providing the perfect start. Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag added 66 in just 8.5 overs before Sehwag, in what is now becoming a custom of sorts, just gifted his wicket after having got well set. He was dismissed by Hilfenhaus trying to pull a short delivery and was caught brilliantly by Bollinger at short fine leg. He made 38 off 30 balls which included 5 fours and a six.

After scalping the first wicket and breaking a dangerous looking partnership, the Australian bowlers ran through the Indian middle order with Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni falling in quick succession. Gambhir (8) was dismissed trying to upper cut a Clint McKay delivery but holding out to Hilfenhaus at third man. Yuvraj (9) gave an easy return catch to Shane Watson while Mahendra Singh Dhoni would consider him unlucky to have been dismissed as a result of a spectacular catch by Adam Voges. Dhoni (6) hit a fierce square cut off debutante McKay but the catch was plucked out of thin air by Voges at cover point leaving India 162 for 4 in the 24^th over.

Meanwhile, Sachin stood at one end like a lone warrior, watching his partners going back one by one. The master was playing a knock which all his fans were waiting to see for a long time. It was vintage Sachin!  It was not the laid back Sachin that we have been watching for the last couple of years but the destructive Sachin that we used to see when he was in the prime of his career. He treated his fans with a whole range of shots right from lofted shots over mid-on, flicks, straight drives, lofted drives over mid-wicket and cover drives to hitting the spinners straight down the ground for huge sixes.

The master notched up another milestone when he reached 17,000 ODI runs, the first ever man to achieve this feat, when he flicked a Hilfenhaus delivery through mid-wicket for three.

After losing three partners in quick succession, Tendulkar found an able ally in Suresh Raina who accompanied the Indian legend to take India close to the victory target. It was an almost perfect partnership. Every time the required run rate seemed like getting out of reach, one of them would come up with a breathtaking shot and bring it back within reach.

During the course of the partnership, Tendulkar brought up his 45^th ODI century, 17 more than the man who is second on the list of centuries, Ricky Ponting. After putting together a almost match winning 137 running partnership, in which Raina contributed significantly with a run a ball 59, Raina miscued a pull shot off Shane Watson and was caught by wicket-keeper Manou running backwards. The same over saw Harbhajan Singh being dismissed caught behind for a duck.

Sachin, however, seemed determined to do it all on his own. He reached 150, his 4^th score of 150 plus in one-day cricket, when he smashed a Hussey delivery to the extra cover fence. With the way Sachin was batting, it looked like India is going to create history and chase down the total of 351 but the Australian’s, the fighters that they are, came back into the game. Another debutante got a moment of a lifetime when Clint McKay induced a false shot from Sachin getting him caught at short fine leg.

Sachin made 175 off 141 balls in an innings laced with 19 splendid boundaries and four magical sixes. When Sachin was dismissed, India needed just 19 to win off 17 balls with four wickets in hand. But in a disastrous collapse, which reminded you of the famous Chennai test match against Pakistan, the Indian lower order just crumbled under pressure.

Ravindra Jadeja (23) ran himself out, like he did in the last game in Mohali, trying to go for a run that was never possible with two legs! Ashish Nehra (1) holed out to long on off the bowling of Bollinger. The final wicket pair of Praveen Kumar (9) and Munaf Patel (2) added 12 runs to keep hopes of a miracle alive. Praveen Kumar hit a powerful six in the penultimate over to bridge the gap but was eventually run out in the final over ending India’s innings at 347, 3 runs short of Australia’s 350.

For Australia, Shane Watson once again proved his worth as an all-rounder picking up 3 for 47 after scoring 93 earlier when they batted. But a special mention needs to be given to debutante Clint McKay. He showed immense character and temperament in a spell he would cherish for the rest of his life for the simple reason that he dismissed the master on a day when he played arguably the best innings of his career. McKay ended with figures of 3 for 59 off 10 overs.

This match would be remembered for a long time to come for a lot of reasons. For one, it proved that one-day cricket is alive and kicking. It would also be remembered for the sublime genius who goes by the name of Sachin Tendulkar. And finally, it would be remembered for Australia, who once again held their nerves in a big match situation and showed why they have ruled world cricket for such a long time.

Brief Scores:

Australia 350 for 4 (Marsh 112, Watson 93, White 57) beat India 347 (Tendulkar 175, Raina 59, Watson 3-47, McKay 3-59) by three runs

Man of the Match: Sachin Tendulkar

After the match, Ponting was all praise for Sachin Tendulkar saying that it was one of the best knocks he has ever witnessed but he also lauded his young side who stepped up when it mattered helping Australia just steal a win from beneath India’s nose. Australia has so far lost five players to injuries in this series and Ponting said he was happy to see how the replacement players have responded to the challenge.

“It’s remarkable considering the number of players we have had injured on this tour and a couple of our better players who didn’t make the tour,” Ponting said. “When you take all those things into consideration, the way we are continuing to improve our cricket is fantastic. It is a great win for the boys and I am really happy to see some of the young guys doing well. It’s a really good sign for the team.”

Ponting was also full of praise for Tendulkar, whose breathtaking 175 was cut short with India needing 19 from 17 deliveries. “Sachin played beautifully. It was one of the best knocks I’ve ever seen,” he said. “We just had to keep hanging in there and I kept telling the bowlers to stick to their plans and to execute them well. It just takes one false shot and you are back in the game, but Sachin didn’t play too many false ones tonight. I thought we batted well too and Shaun Marsh and Watson were terrific for us today at the top of the order.”

Shaun Marsh, who scored his first one-day international century and finished with 112 in his first series after being out of the Australian team for six months, said it was a memorable day for him after being out of the team for such a long time.

“It felt like I was never going to get there when I was doing recovery with my hamstrings and all that,” Marsh told AAP. “It was a long six months when I did it in Dubai and knew it would be a lot of hard work. All the hard work I have done over the past six months is paying off a little bit so I have to continue now to make sure I don’t get too far in front of myself as I know this game can bite you on the bum very quickly.”

Marsh has now followed in the footsteps of his father Geoff Marsh, whose first ODI century was also against India. “It’s a day I will remember for a long time,” he said. “It’s a good feeling to know that he [Dad] has scored a century for Australia and that now I have has well.”

“Three or four of our top batsmen did not score but still we came close to the target. Sachin Tendulkar played very well and he was one man who brought us close to a win. But even after he left we did not lose hopes till the end,” said Dhoni about Tendulkar’s fabulous knock which was studded with 19 fours and four sixes.

Dhoni said that although it as a special innings by the little master, his personal favourite still remains the Desert Storm in Sharjah against Australia in 1998. “It was a pleasure to see him batting so well. All his centuries have been special and this too. But I am still a big fan of his desert storm (innings),” he said.

Dhoni was also of the view that India lost the mental aspect of the game and not the cricketing part. “We lost the mental aspect and not the cricketing part of the match. Chasing 350 was always going to be difficult even on this wicket which played very well,” he said after India lost a heart-stopper to Australia to give the visitors a 3-2 lead in the seven-match series.

Dhoni felt that though the conditions were ideal for batting, his bowlers gave away 20-30 runs extra on the placid Rajiv Gandhi International stadium wicket. “We always knew the wicket was going to play good but the pressure of chasing 350 was high. It would have been easier had our bowlers done something extra to restrict the score to 325 or 330. I am not saying they should have stopped them at 270,” said the wicketkeeper batsman, who had an ordinary day with both the bat and behind the wicket.

The India skipper refused to believe that his side would be under extra pressure in the next game at Guwahati on Sunday. “Every game is a pressure game. There will always be pressure,” he said.

Dhoni also lavished praise on the Australian batsmen for their superb show but said the three dropped chances cost his team dear. “We dropped three catches which proved to be costly,” he said about the chances given to Shaun Marsh (twice) and Shane Watson (once).

Marsh was dropped on 29 and 51 while Watson was let off on 90. Marsh made 112; his maiden ODI hundred and Watson went on to score 93 and also took three wickets.

Tendulkar scored 175 off 141 balls, a knock during which he went past the landmark of 17,000 ODI runs, the first batsman to do so. At the end of the match Tendulkar stands at 17,168 runs with 45 hundreds to his credit. But his magical innings couldn’t prevent India from losing the match against a fighting Australian side.

“I thought we started off really well then lost wickets. Suresh (Raina) and I had a good partnership but in the end, it was disappointing. The pressure to keep scoring runs was there and we took it very close. But I feel it was one of my best knocks,” said Tendulkar, who was adjudged the Man of the Match.

When asked, what keeps him going? He has been playing for India for 20 years now but the hunger is still there. How does he keep himself motivated? Tendulkar replied, “I care about playing for India, it’s a passion and I have been absolutely honoured to play for India for so long.”

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said that the match was lost due to mental calculation. “They got off to a good start and we never got into a position to contain them. It was up to us to chase it. We got a good start and we came in the end due to Tendulkar and Raina. We lost it in our mental calculation, not because of our talent. It was one of the good ODI tracks we have seen in India, you have to be smart. Hopefully we will be up for the next two games,” he said.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting also applauded Tendulkar for playing one of the best knocks in his 20-year-old career. “It was one of the amazing games and certainly one of the best innings ever from Sachin. Sachin didn’t play many bad shots today! It’s really unbelievable how we have played, considering all the injuries,” he said.