Australia beat India by 87 runs to qualify for finals

Indian batting was at it's miserable worst as the visitors were bundled out on 165 runs by Australia in the 10th ODI of the ongoing CB Series, here on Sunday.

Chasing 253 for a win and points, the Indian openers in Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar left early. Second over from the hosts and Sehwag smacked the ball right back to the bowler, Ben Hilfenhaus, to return with 5 runs to his name. Tendulkar joined his partner in the seventh over when he was run out by David Warner. The master blaster had 14 runs with 2 boundaries, leaving the ground fuming as he found Brett Lee in his path while trying to complete the run, unsuccessfully.

Gautam Gambhir on the other end struck a few boundaries but looked tentative for most parts of his innings. It seemed to even rub-off on Virat Kohli who surrendered to stand-in skipper Shane Watson's bowling. A lazy flick from Kohli (21) and Daniel Christian swallowed a rather simple catch at midwicket. Gambhir (23) followed in the next over, leaving his stumps shattered by an inside edge off McKay's bowling.

Watson rallied his bowlers well and did not ease the pressure on India even momentarily. The collapse turned into a cricketing holocaust as Suresh Raina (8) and Ravindra Jadeja (8) departed without having any impact on the proceedings.

It was then that the Indian batting showed some signs of life as Irfan Pathan and R Ashwin stitched together a 30-run stand for the 8th wicket with some entertaining shots beyond the boundary. Once Ashwin (26) fell to Xavier Doherty, it was all over in favour of Australia.

India bowed out with a little over 10 overs to spare.

Earlier in the day, Australia posted an unconvincing 9 for 252 with David Warner scoring 68. David Hussey (54) and Matthew Wade (56) had useful contributions in the innings as well.