India back in the series

India duly played themselves back into the seven-match one-day international series against Australia on Monday with an excellent all-round effort. Victory cut Australia's lead to 2-1 and with their confidence up, I wouldn't write off India's chances of winning the series altogether.

Bet365 make that a 7/1 chance, with Australia still long odds-on at 1/16 (1.06) but India will be massively buoyed by the fact that they have beaten the Aussies in a one-day game for the first time since 2004.

And the reasons they did it? Well, to put it simply, they batted first. India are a far better side, in my opinion, when setting other teams a target and then defending it with their good variety of options in the field, from the spin of Harbhajan and Karthik to the pace of Zaheer and RS Singh.

And the statistics back that up, hugely. The last seven times they have beaten Australia in one-day cricket, they have batted first, which tells you something. Of course, Australia have beaten India even when they, the Indians, batted first, but at least with this team, setting the target seems to suit both their batsmen and bowlers.

Australia are still favourites to win the fifth match in the series, to be played on Thursday, but they are just 4/7, with India given some respect from the bookmakers at 5/4.

India have won five of the six one-day internationals to have been played at the I.P.C.L. Sports Complex Ground, Vadodara, venue for Thursday's game, so they at least have good memories, while Australia will at least know they are in for a fight.

The return of Sourav Ganguly at the top of the Indian batting line-up clearly settled the side down and he and Sachin Tendulkar made sure they made a better opening partnership than Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden, an even money tip. The Indians are again even money to repeat the feat, and I'd say that's a pretty good price once more.