Rain ruins intriguing opening encounter of tri-nation series

Brisbane: Heavy rain forced the abandonment of the opening tri-series limited-overs match between Australia and India here at the Gabba here on Sunday.

The match was evenly poised with the world champions on 51 for 3 from 7.2 overs, chasing a revised target of 141 from 26 overs, when the fourth and final rain break forced the umpires to call off play for good.

India, after winning the toss earlier in the day, were all out for 194.

Australia were struggling just to survive as the ball starting zipping around on a wet pitch. After putting on 33 in the first 4 overs, the Australians suddenly lost 3 wickets in 9 balls before the match was called off.

Brett Lee had earlier ripped through India's batting line-up with his blistering pace as the tourists collapsed to be all out in the 45th over.

Gautam Gambhir top-scored for India with 39 while captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni made 37 and spinner Harbhajan Singh chipped in with a valuable 27 between Lee's 3 explosive bursts. Lee took 5-27 from 9 overs, including 2 wickets in his final over.

Lee dismissed Sachin Tendulkar for 10 in his first spell when the batsman had stepped on his own stumps off a short-pitched ball. Lee then dismissed Rohit Sharma for 29 and debutant Manoj Tiwary for 2 with an inswinging yorker in his second spell.