Australia vs India, 1st Test at Melbourne, Dec 26 2011 - Ball by Ball Commentary

Right then, it's over to the SCG after the early finish at the MCG. I'll leave you with Dan Brettig's match report, and there'll be lots more later. This is Abhishek Purohit signing off for the moment. Cheers

Clarke: "Our tail were outstanding with their batting, and we have to give full credit to the bowlers. You always want to have plans against whatever team you play and we were able to execute the plans. Credit has to go to Ponting and Hussey as well. India are a fantastic team. It is great to have them here in Australia. We know they'll come hard at us in Sydney."

Dhoni: "Bowlers brought us back in to the game. We were short by 50-odd runs in the first innings. Their lower order scored some runs, if we had got them earlier, we would have had 50-60 runs less to chase. We are known to be tentative starters, I think in the next game we will be slightly better. You have to give credit to the Australia bowlers for the way they bowled." He also keeps the faith in his experienced batting line-up and says he is not worried by them failing twice here in Melbourne

James Pattinson is the Man of the Match. Pattinson: "It's a pretty surreal feeling right now. We were coming off a bit of pressure after losing in Hobart to New Zealand. It is fantastic to win here at the MCG. Victorian supporters are the best in the business. Siddle is fantastic, he keeps everyone in the side going."

The fast bowlers form both sides bowled their hearts out, Australia's the more disciplined. Australia showed the character to bounce back from 27 for 4 in the second innings though

The teams exchange handshakes after Australia go 1-0 up in the four-Test series. Australia look a very pleased lot, hugs and smiles all around It was a hard-fought Test for the first three days, until India capitulated, again, in the second innings, following their collapse in the first. This is their fifth consecutive defeat in overseas Tests, and their batsmen have a lot of answering to do.

Gautam Gambhir, for instance, averages under 30 since his last Test century, which was back in January 2010

nitin: "Margin of defeat = No of runs by Ponting in this test match."

Viv: "A very similar script to the Nottingham test against Eng. Getting the opponents reeling at 150/8 or so and then conceding runs to the tail. Following up that with a solid top order performance only to lose 7 wickets for 30 runs or so..."

Craig: "Ponting and Hussey: too old, too slow? No, too good!!"

Kishore: "Supreet - Burn your bean bag."

around the stumps now, more music coming up Umesh's way

Scott: "In response to Gareth, I dont really think that was a turning point. Hussey and Pontings partnership really put Aussie in a game winning position, especially after India ripped apart the top order."