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India’s famed batting line-up produced yet another spineless display to crash to an embarrassing 122-run defeat in the first cricket Test and hand Australia a 1-0 lead in the four-match Test series here today.

Chasing a target of 292 in the second innings, India’s top-order collapsed like a proverbial house of cards against the pace trio of James Pattinson (4/53), Peter Siddle (3/42) and Ben Hilfenhaus (2/39) to be bundled out for a paltry 169 in 47.5 overs on the final session of the penultimate day.

India were always up against history as no side since 1963 has made more than 250 runs in the fourth innings at MCG to win a Test match.

Sachin Tendulkar promised some ray of hope during his little cameo of 32 runs, but the rest of the top-order batsmen cut a sorry figure against the Australian quicks and at one stage the tourists had lost four wickets for just 22 runs.

Openers Virender Sehwag (7) and Gautam Gambhir (13) and the senior trio of Rahul Dravid (10), Tendulkar and VVS Laxman (1) all failed to save the day for India and departed inside the 90-run mark.

Young Virat Kohli (0) suffered his second failure of the match and made matters worse by showing his displeasure at a plumb leg before decision.

Ravichandran Ashwin (30) rode his luck for a while and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (23) was street-smart during his stay, but the task proved to be too tall for them to achieve once the top-order departed early.
SCORE BOARD
Australia 1st Innings: 333
India 1st Innings: 282
Australia 2nd innings (Overnight 179 for 8):
David Warner            b Yadav   5
Ed Cowan            lbw b Yadav   8
Shaun Marsh             b Yadav   3
Ricky Ponting  c Sehwag b Khan   60
Michael Clarke          b Sharma  1
Michael Hussey  c Dhoni b Khan   89
Brad Haddin     c Laxman b Khan   6
Peter Siddle    c Dhoni b Yadav   4
Nathan Lyon         lbw b Ashwin  0
James Pattinson         not out  37
Ben Hilfenhaus c Laxman b Sharma 14
Extras: (B-5, LB-2, W-1, NB-5)   13
Total: (all out in 76.3 overs)  240
Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-16, 3-24, 4-27, 5-142, 6-148, 7-163, 8-166, 9-197, 10-240
Bowling: Zaheer Khan 20-4-53-3, Umesh Yadav 20-4-70-4, Ishant Sharma 11-0-43-2, Ravichandran Ashwin 22-4-60-1, Virender Sehwag 2-0-7-0.
India 2nd innings:
Gautam Gambhir         c Ponting   b Siddle      13
Virender Sehwag    c Hussey    b Hilfenhaus   7
Rahul Dravid                     b Pattinson      10
Sachin Tendulkar    c Hussey    b Siddle      32
VVS Laxman         c Cowan     b Pattinson       1
Virat Kohli                 lbw b Hilfenhaus   0
M S Dhoni                      b Pattinson   23
R Ashwin              c Cowan     b Siddle       30
Zaheer Khan         c Cowan     b Pattinson       13
Ishant Sharma                  not out             6
Umesh Yadav         c Warner    b Lyon         21
Extras (LB-10, WD-2, NB-1)                      13
Total (all out in 47.5 overs)                 169
Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-39, 3-58, 4-68, 5-69, 6-81, 7-117, 8-141, 9-142.
Bowling:     James Pattinson 15-2-53-4, Ben Hilfenhaus 18-4-39-2,  Peter Siddle 9-1-42-3, Nathan Lyon 5.5-0-25-1.