SYDNEY, Australia (AP):
Fast bowler Brett Lee took five wickets, including three in seven balls late in the innings, to help Australia beat India by 18 runs in a free-scoring tri-series limited-overs match yesterday.
Led by captain Ricky Ponting's 124 runs, Australia scored 317-7 after winning the toss and batting first. India poured on the run chase at the end - achieving the highest score by a team batting second in a one-day match at the Sydney Cricket Ground - but couldn't overcome the Australian total thanks to Lee's late wicket burst, and were bowled out for 299 in the last over.
"It was touch-and-go for a while, but a win's a win," said Lee, who finished with 5-58.
India lost their last three wickets for nine runs.
India to play Sri Lanka
Gautam Gambhir scored 113 for India and Robin Uthappa added 51. India play Sri Lanka tomorrow (later Jamaica time) at Hobart, with an India win advancing them to the best-of-three finals against Australia beginning next Sunday, also at Sydney.
Ponting, ending a batting slump, picked up his 26th one-day century, with only Sachin Tendulkar (41) having registered more one-day international hundreds.
The 33-year-old Ponting celebrated by raising his bat and exuberantly punching the air in the direction of the Australian changing rooms.
In six innings this series before yesterday's match, Ponting had only scored 64 runs at 10.66, and scored only moderately in the preceding Test series.
Andrew Symonds scored 59 off 49 balls to end his lean form, and Matthew Hayden (54 off 62 balls) reached a half century before being run out, as the home side's batsmen clicked into gear.
Symonds, at the centre of a name-calling controversy with Harbhajan Singh during the Australia-India Test series, had a fiery exchange with Ishant Sharma after the paceman bowled him with a slower ball.
Umpires intervened
The umpires intervened to try to cool down Sharma as Symonds trudged off the ground.
Match referee Jeff Crowe earlier became involved in an incident featuring the catching gloves of Indian wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The India captain used the gloves to collect a one-handed catch off an inside edge to dismiss fellow wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist for 16 early in the Australian innings. The ball lodged inside the webbing of Dhoni's gloves, between his thumb and index finger.
Under the laws of cricket, webbing on wicketkeeper's gloves is not allowed to protrude "beyond the straight line joining the top of the index finger to the top of the thumb". Dhoni's gloves appeared to be in violation of that rule.
Television commentator and former Australian Test wicketkeeper Ian Healy raised concerns about the gloves on air. Crowe apparently approached Indian team officials about the matter and Dhoni changed his gloves during a break in the Australian innings.
Australian Associated Press said Crowe took one of the gloves away for further inspection.
