Australia level series in Mohali

Australia level series in Mohali

Australia won the fourth one-day international in Mohali by 24 runs to square the seven-game series at 2-2.

Skipper Ricky Ponting (52) and Cameron White (62) made fifties, but the tourists collapsed from 196-4 to 250 all out, with Ashish Nehra taking 3-37.

But after a bright start from Virender Sehwag, who clubbed 30 from 19 balls, India found batting hard-going.

Sachin Tendulkar ground out 40 from 68 balls, but Doug Bollinger picked up 3-29 as India were dismissed for 226.

Ponting said: "We felt we had missed out on a few runs out there with the bat. At one stage it looked like we would get close to 300, but we didn't capitalise on the powerplay.

"We lost a few wickets leading up to our powerplay again and that's been a bit of a problem for us through the series so far.

"But the boys bowled exceptionally well tonight. Bollinger was outstanding. He came on and his wickets probably brought us back into the game.

606: DEBATE
All credit to Australia. Guys like Bollinger show what bench strength is all about. And Dirk Nannes is not even in the squad

80mph

"We have worked hard on our fielding and I thought it has been at its best in the whole series tonight."

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said his side had simply not batted well enough.

"The target was gettable, the wicket was good and there was dew out there, but we needed to bat 50 overs and we didn't," he said.

"Our fielding was perhaps the best effort we have seen in more than a year. The bowlers were terrific as well and although Australia got off to a good start, we restricted them in the final powerplay.

"But you have to be at your best in every game and the moment you slack off you end up on the losing side."

Put in to bat after Dhoni won the toss, opener Shane Watson and Ponting put on 64 in just over 10 overs after Shaun Marsh had fallen cheaply.

Watson made 49 before being caught by wicketkeeper Dhoni off spinner Harbhajan Singh's first delivery.

Ponting scored his third half-century in four matches before being run out by Ravindra Jadeja's throw to Dhoni after going for a second to deep square leg. Ponting hit a six and five boundaries from 59 deliveries.

White added 73 runs for the fourth wicket with Mike Hussey, whose good form in the series continued with a 41-ball 40.

Hussey missed out on a fourth consecutive half-century when he miscued left-arm spinner Yuvraj Singh to Ishant Sharma at deep midwicket and White, whose knock came from 71 balls, was run out by Nehra.

Harbhajan returned figures of 2-48 after having all-rounder Moises Henriques caught behind for six, while Nehra snapped up Mitchell Johnson for eight and Peter Siddle for one as the tourists were dismissed with four balls remaining in their innings.

Bollinger, playing because of Brett Lee's absence through injury, dismissed three top-order batsman in Sehwag, Virat Kohli and Dhoni, but not before Sehwag had smashed seven boundaries off 13 balls.

Tendulkar top-scored for India before falling seven short of 17,000 ODI runs when he was lbw to Nathan Hauritz, but after his opening partnership of 40 with Sehwag, wickets fell at regular intervals.

Hauritz finished with 2-31, while Watson claimed the last three wickets to claim figures of 3-29.