Mumbai, Nov 01: Rattled by a blistering Australian batting onslaught, India succumbed to the pressure of chasing a huge total as the world champions made amends for the Gwalior debacle with a comfortable 77-run victory in the triangular series cricket match here today. Chasing a challenging 287 for victory, the Indians never really recovered from the early jolts despite valiant knocks by Sachin Tendulkar (68) and Rahul Dravid (59) to be bowled out for 209 with 3.4 overs to spare in what turned out to be rather one-sided floodlit encounter.
The Aussies not only erased memories of their 37-run defeat in Gwalior last Sunday but also jumped to the top of the table with 13 points from three outings while the Indians had eight points to their credit from as many matches. New Zealand, the third team in the fray, were at the bottom of the table with three points.
The visitors outplayed the Indians in their own backyard in all departments of the game despite losing the in-form Matthew Hayden for a first-ball duck on a track which provided some assistance to the bowlers.
Electing to bat, Damien Martyn led the Australian batting assault with a rollicking 100 capitalising on some wayward bowling by the hosts while Andrew Symonds (48), Michael Bevan (42), Adam Gilchrist (41) and Ricky Ponting (31) came up with useful contributions to leave the fully-packed Wankhede Stadium in a daze.