India justified their tag of world champions with a seven-wicket thrashing of Australia in a one-off Twenty20 international here on Saturday.  Opening batsman Gautam Gambhir top-scored with a 52-ball 63 and helped the hosts overhaul Australia's total of 166-5 in 20 overs with 11 balls to spare in the one-sided contest.

Yuvraj Singh, India's hero at the World Twenty20 Championship in South Africa last month, chipped in with an unbeaten 31 inclusive of three mighty sixes and one four while Robin Uthappa added a valuable 35.  The Indians, who were barely tested in the game, regaled the boisterous 30,000 crowd with a victory parade reminiscent of the celebrations after their triumphant return from South Africa.
"We were superb today. We wanted to prove that we are the world champions and we did just that," Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said.

"We bowled consistently well in good areas. Gambhir played sensibly, the way he has come back after the injury, it is commendable."

Gambhir, the top-scorer for India in South Africa with a tally of 227 runs from seven matches, missed out on the last four matches of the preceding one-day series which Australia won 4-2 here on Wednesday. "We gave away too many extras. The Indians bowled and batted well, they deserved to win the game," Australian skipper Ricky Ponting said.

The match, played in an electric atmosphere indicative of the growing popularity of the slam-bang version of the game, also remained largely incident free barring the occasional booing of Andrew Symonds.  Indians overcame the early loss of Virender Sehwag, who was caught by wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist off speedster Brett Lee for five, to plunder 100 runs in the first ten overs.

Uthappa made a 26-ball 35 with six fours and put on 82 runs in 65 balls with Gambhir before being caught behind the stumps off part-time bowler Michael Clarke.

Earlier, Australia who lost to India in the semi-finals of the World Twenty20 Championship, relied on Ponting's 53-ball 76 to put up a challenging total.



Ponting, playing his 10th Twenty20 international, steadied the innings with a 50-run partnership with Symonds (20) for the third wicket before a mix-up cost the hard-hitting allrounder his wicket.

Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was the most economical among the Indian bowlers, giving away 17 runs in his four overs with one wicket.

Paceman Shanthakumaran Sreesanth (0-47) was even more expensive as he was flogged by the Australian batsmen all round the park

SCOREBOARD

Australia

A. Gilchrist	b Rudra Pratap	12
M. Hayden	b Harbhajan	17
R. Ponting	b Pathan	76
A. Symonds	run out	20
B. Hodge	b Pathan	2
M. Clarke	not out	25
B. Haddin	not out	5
Extras	lb2, w7	9
Total	for five wickets	166

Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Gilchrist), 2-60 (Hayden), 3-110 (Symonds), 4-116 (Hodge), 5-158 (Ponting).

Bowling	Rudra Pratap	4-0-39-1 (w1)
	Sreesanth	4-0-47-0 (w2)
	Pathan	4-0-34-2
	Harbhajan	4-0-17-1
	Kartik	4-0-27-0

Overs: 20

India

G. Gambhir	c Ponting b Hilfenhaus	63
V. Sehwag	c Gilchrist b Lee	5
R. Uthappa	c Gilchrist b Clarke	35
Yuvraj Singh	not out	31
M. S. Dhoni	not out	9
Extras	lb12, w9, nb3	24
Total	for three wickets	167

Fall of wickets: 1-20 (Sehwag), 2-102 (Uthappa), 3-143 (Gambhir).

Bowling	Lee	3.1-0-35-1 (nb1, w1)
	Bracken	2-0-19-0 (w1)
	Hilfenhaus	4-0-28-1 (nb2)
	Clark	4-0-33-0 (w2)
	Symonds	3-0-26-0
	Clarke	2-0-14-1

Overs: 18.1

India won by seven wickets

Umpires: Amiesh Saheba (IND) and Suresh Shastri (IND)

Third Umpire: G. A. Pratapkumar (IND)

Match referee: Chris Broad (ENG)

©  AFP

Comment
Name:
Email:
Title:
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

3.21 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."