Ponting pleased with progress

Ricky Ponting during his return to form © Getty Images

Man of the match Ricky Ponting was delighted that all Australia's batsmen, including himself, enjoyed long spells at the crease as Australia beat India by 18 runs in the Commonwealth Bank Series on Sunday.

Ponting’s 124 plus half-centuries from Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds gave the hosts a commanding total of 317 for seven, which India narrowly failed to reach following a spirited fightback from Gautam Gambhir, who smashed 113, and Robin Uthappa (51).

Brett Lee denied India, taking 5-58 and mopping up the lower order with the dismissals of Uthappa, Harbhajan Singh and Ishant Sharma.

It has so far been a miserable series for Ponting, whose highest score before Sunday was 25, but he returned to form in spectacular fashion with a classy knock.

“We are trying to get some momentum behind us going into the finals and hopefully I can get some more runs in the next few games,” he said.

“All sorts of things were happening at the end of the game and our bowling wasn’t quite what it should have been.

“It was great that some of our guys got some time in the middle coming towards the end of the series.

Robin Uthappa attacks the Australia bowling

“It’s great that Andrew Symonds got some time out there. There are lots of good things to take from the game and now we have got a few days off to put our feet up and work on our preparation before the finals.”

Despite seeing India force a tense finish, Lee was happy with Australia’s performance.

“It’s always nice to get a win,” he said. “It was touch and go for a while but we stuck to it and in the end it was great.

“All in all it was a great day and it was good to see Ricky (Ponting) get a good knock.

“I tried to vary my bowling a bit and try different things and it is always nice to get a couple of wickets.”

India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni believes there are positives to be taken from the narrow defeat - in particular the half-century smashed by Uthappa batting at number seven.

The tourists posted the highest score of the series by a team batting second but fell just short of their daunting target.

“We didn’t get a good start but our lower order partnerships almost made up for it,” he said.

“Robin Uthappa was really quite special. He plays the cut and the pull very well and if he can play a few innings like that he can move up the order.

“Gautam Gambhir played well again and hit another big hundred. He was very calm and chose his shots very well.”