In the company of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj rescued the faltering innings striking 12 fours and three sixes in his stroke-filled innings. His 95 run partnership with Tendulkar was worth its weight in gold, but when Hogg bowled Tendulkar on 43, India were again looking down the barrel at 108-4.

Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj set about rebuilding again as the latter hammered 33 in just 37 balls. But when he was dismissed by Brett Lee with the score at 173, the innings folded up quickly. Rohit Sharma and Irfan Pathan did not last long, but Yuvraj gamely soldiered on, only to fall at 121 with India still requiring 72 runs to win.

Harbhajan Singh did play well getting 19 from 22 balls, but it was all over for India by then.

Earlier Ricky Ponting had won the toss and elected to bat on a flat track at Uppal in Hyderabad. Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden gave the visitors a rousing start piling up 76 runs in no time. Pathan struck the first blow for India when he got the wicket of Gilchrist in the 14th over. However Hayden, who scored 60, and Ponting then put on 46 runs before Hayden bottom-edged Pathan to Dhoni.

Ponting, coming back from injury after missing the first two games, then fell to Yuvraj Singh on 25. However Michael Clarke and Man of the Match Andrew Symonds put on 123 runs to almost take the game beyond India.

Symonds was particularly violent as he smashed five sixes and five fours to pile up 89 runs from just 67 balls. Australia finished at 290 for seven.

The Indian innings was in tatters with Gambhir falling to Lee and Uthappa and Dravid following in quick succession.

The loss means India trail 2-0 in a series that has been effectively reduced to six games following the Bangalore washout. The next game is a must win for them and could see Sourav Ganguly back in action after he was omitted in favor of Rohit Sharma today.

The teams next travel to Chandigarh for the fourth game on Monday.

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