They bury the biggest ghost

"YEAAAAAAH... Come on now, Jai Hind. Ek Sikh kaafi hai sab ke liye (one Sikh is enough for all)." For all the abuses hurled at him, all the controversies he landed in, Harbhajan Singh had the last laugh - it was more of a shriek, and probably of relief - as he turned to the crowd, clutching his India jersey and waving the Tricolour.

India ended their troubled tour of Australia on a high note today, defeating the hosts by nine runs in a thriller to wrap up the best-of-three triangular series finals 2-0. Needing 13 runs from the last over, Australia were bowled out for 249 as James Hopes's brave innings came to an end with only two balls left.

For Indian cricket, this is a red letter day. This young side has done what no other Indian team has done before - a series victory in Australia against Australia. Probably, better than the 1985 World Series when India became champions. Sunil Gavaskar, who was the skipper then, walked up to Mahendra Singh Dhoni today: "Congrats skipper, really well done."

Dhoni called the entire team on stage to lift the trophy. "I think all 17 players reacted well. As a skipper, all you do is just transfer the pressure to individuals. I go up to Bhajji and tell him, get me a wicket. I think Bhajji has been superb. For all the things written about him, I felt he was almost like Michael Jackson. He was followed wherever he went, everyday his photos were splashed. But I think all these controversies and the backlash worked for us. Harbhajan is a very aggressive and expressive guy, the controversies made him tougher," Dhoni said.

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India break MCG jinx to lead table

IT had to come at some point on Sunday night. The matters that Ishant Sharma precipitated in the afternoon took the maximum time to be crystallized, and though it didn't have the essence of a bonus point, the end result should provide satisfaction to this bunch of young boys who were being experimented in the laboratory of Indian cricket team Down Under.

India leap frogged to the top of the table with eight points when Andrew Symonds bowled a wide and Rohit Sharma raised his hands in delight at crossing 160.

But this five-wicket win with 25 balls to spare was more about shattering the myth of Australian domination.

That Australia played with their full side makes the victory even sweeter for this 49,369 audience with majority of Indian supporters and they were third time lucky as India finally broke the big MCG jinx on this tour. Rohit Sharma and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni ended matters in the most sedate manner, adopting the safety first approach with an unbroken 58-run partnership for the sixth wicket.

But it was really the lanky kid from Delhi who bowled with a grumbling pain in his stomach and bigger complications with his front foot and the white line. Ishant spectacularly set up this victory with his first two spells of 5-0-34-1 and 3-1-3-1 from the same Southern stand end that had where started with his first two overs going for 24 runs. Ishant returned to add one more victim in his last seven- ball to earn his maiden man of the match award though Australians have a right to moan that situations would have been different had they got a couple of umpiring decisions right.

It's a pity that such a good win for India opened up with a rank bad judgment from umpire Rudi Koertzen. It began on the third ball of the afternoon when he up held Sreesanth's lbw appeal against Adam Gilchrist who got a thick inside edge to a full-length delivery.

Sreesanth was spot on in the corridor of uncertainty while the other new-ball operator Ishant bowled a couple of wicket-taking deliveries and between a barrage of a wide, a couple of no balls and well-pitched up deliveries.

The first runs off the bat came through an edge when India's nemesis Mathew Hayden was dropped on no score as Rohit Sharma palmed a difficult chance at third slip off Ishant. He edged once again but it was too high for the second silp to hold on a no-ball but the lanky India pacer was third time lucky-this time Hayden went for a booming cover drive and nicked it fine to Dhoni to complete the formalities. Ricky Ponting started off pushing through the cover region but was squared up once again on nine as Ishant hit the deck to earn extra bounce and take the shoulder of Ponting's bat before landing in Sehwag's safe hands.

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