Sydney - Master batsman Sachin Tendulkar scored 91 as India registered a nine-run win over world champions Australia to secure the Commonwealth Bank Series 2-0. Tendulkar's hit left the Australians needing 259 to win and force a deciding match in Adelaide at the end of the week in their tri- nation series final.
But Australia fell short by nine runs at the end of a tumultuous tour. They were all out for 249.
Tendulkar, in what is likely to be his last appearance in Australia, scored a century to help India to a six-wicket victory in the first final in Sydney on Sunday.
The 34-year-old faced 121 balls and shared a 94-run opening stand with Robin Uthappa, who scored 30.
Australia had another top-level battling collapse in their reply, with Adam Gilchrist scoring two, Matthew Hayden run out for 55 and captain Ricky Ponting dispatched to the dressing room for one.
Controversial all-rounder Andrew Symonds was out leg-before, shortly after flattening a male streaker with an industrial-strength shoulder charge.
Symonds, who in the off-season trains with the Brisbane Broncos rugby league team, risks a punishment over the brutal tackle.
A partnership between Michael Hussey and James Hopes for the fifth wicket raised the hopes of locals that there might be a decider in Adelaide on Friday but the required run-rate proved too much for the part-timers at the end of the Australian line-up.
