Tendulkar was unrelenting in his assault against Mitchell Johnson, playing the upper cut to perfection, and tactically phasing out Brett Lee with a dead bat. All along, he kept the required run rate under five an over.

Rohit was out soon after Tendulkar scored his century, but India were almost through by that time. Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni only hastened the victory, hitting three boundaries, including the winning runs, in his unbeaten 15.

Dhoni opted for two spinners in the five-man bowling attack, bravely bringing on Piyush Chawla for whom it was the first appearance in the tournament and that too in a critical match. The ploy worked: Chawla, along with Harbhajan Singh and part-timer Yuvraj Singh, brought the Australian middle-order to a halt after Symonds and Hayden put on 100 runs for the fourth wicket.