Images: India vs Australia, 5th ODI, Hyderabad

Australia captain Ricky Ponting won the toss and elected to bat against India in the fifth One-Day International in Hyderabad, on Thursday.

The hosts made a couple of changes, with Munaf Patel coming in place of Ishant Sharma, who was rested, and a fit-again Gautam Gambhir replaced his Delhi team-mate Virat Kohli.

Australia were forced to make three changes because of injuries and Adam Voges, Ben Hilfenhaus and Clint McKay made their way into the squad. They replaced Peter Siddle, Moises Henriques and Mitchell Johnson respectively.

A belligerent century stand between openers Shaun Marsh (112) and Shane Watson (93) powered an injury-hit Australia to an imposing 350 for four in their 50 overs after the visitors had elected to bat.

Watson gave Australia a flying start, smashing 93 off 89 balls that included three sixes and eight boundaries.

The bulky all-rounder took a few overs to settle down before he cut loose and dominated the 145-run stand for the first wicket with Marsh.

The Indian spinners, particularly Harbhajan Singh, applied the skids on the tourists' runaway start, to keep Australia well under check by denying them boundaries for 80 balls in the middle overs.

Watson, lucky to escape a difficult caught and bowled chance off Yuvraj when 10 short of the century, fell seven adrift of his three-figure mark when he mistimed a slog-sweep off Harbhajan and was caught off the top edge by Jadeja at mid-wicket.

With the fall of Watson's wicket, Ponting came to middle. His second-wicket partnership with Shaun Marsh had yielded 91 runs, off just 85 balls, and put Australia well on course for a huge total.

Then Marsh, playing second fiddle for much of the innings, cut loose and soon completed his maiden one-day hundred, his first major score since the 78 against South Africa in January.

Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag came to open the Indian innings and started in grand style. Of the Australian bowlers, Hilfenhaus recieved severe punishment.

While Sehwag and Gambhir got out after having starts, Tendulkar continued the assault and in the process became the first cricketer to reach the milestone of 17,000 runs in One-Day Internationals.

He kept up the aggression hitting Hilfenhaus over mid-wicket for four, shuffling debutant Clint McKay down the leg side for another result and hitting Watson over mid-off for the same result - the boundaries coming in three successive overs.

A superlative 113-run partnership for the fifth wicket between Tendulkar and Suresh Raina helped India inch closer to an improbable win.

However, once Raina and Tendulkar, who scored his 45th ODI century, were gone, there was no way that India would get back into the game.

Ravinder Jadeja and later Praveen Kumar did inject some hope of a win with big shots, but a couple of run-outs in the end ensured that the match was out of India's grip and the hosts had to a face a 3-run defeat.