Aus 269-7 beat Ind 241-6, by 29 runs

Australia beat India in the latest tri-series match in Melbourne, which was delayed after Indian fans threw bottles onto the playing surface.

The incident-packed game also saw Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly scoring centuries, and a male streaker run onto the ground.

Indian captain Sachin Tendulkar also criticised the tournament schedule, and the constant travelling between venues.

Ganguly's run out for exactly 100 caused fans to hurl missiles onto the playing area.

Indian supporters among the 73,219 crowd at the MCG stopped play for 17 minutes after the left-hander was given run out in the 40th over with the score of 177 for three.

Ponting celebrated his Tuesday appointment as vice-captain with 115 off 121 balls.

His sixth one-day hundred in 93 matches came after Australia lost both openers by the fourth over, leaving them 19 for two.

But Ponting added 99 for the third wicket with Michael Bevan and 71 for the fifth with Damien Martyn.

The hosts slipped from 227-4 to 234-7 before Shane Lee (22 not out) and Damien Fleming added 35 useful runs in the remaining five overs.

The Indians had Venkat Laxman dismissed in the third over, before sending in Sameer Dighe in at number three.

The decision backfired as the wicket-keeper, playing his second one-day international, took 18 balls to get off the mark before falling two runs later.

The match became embroiled in controversy when Ganguly and Dravid attempted a quick single.

Initially the scoreboard reported that he had survived, but it proved a technical fault and the mistake incensed Indian supporters at long leg.

Rahul Dravid and new batsman Robin Singh walked to the fence to pacify the agitated crowd as groundstaff cleared the bottles from the outfield.

Dravid shrugged off poor form to score 60, his first half-century of the tour, but it was not enough to bring India victory.

Their hopes faded with his dismissal and the Australian attack proved more than capable of keeping the run-rate down.

Australian officials are now to demand stronger police presence at future day-night internationals.

"What happened tonight was totally unacceptable," said Australian Cricket Board chairman Mal Speed.

"It's the second year in a row we've had problems here."

Australian captain Steve Waugh was just glad to have won.

"It was just a long and frustrating night for us but I've seen it just as bad or worse at other venues, including Sydney," said the skipper.

"As soon as something goes against the crowd, they just lose interest and want to destroy the night."

But Tendulkar was angry at the schedule which is forcing players to travel from one Australian city to another, with sometimes only one day between games.

"If you want to see quality cricket, you need to give the players recovery time," he complained.

"We are not playing at the same venue. There's a lot of travel involved."

Scorecard

Australia:

M Waugh c Laxman b Agarkar 7
A Gilchrist c Laxman b Srinath 3
R Ponting c Tendulkar b Srinath 115
M Bevan c Agarkar b Singh 41
S Waugh run out 23
D Martyn c Tendulkar b Kumble 30
A Symonds run out 3
S Lee not out 22
D Fleming not out 14

Extras: (b1, lb2, w8) 11

Total (for seven wickets) 269

Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-19, 3-118, 4-156, 5-227, 6-232, 7-234

Bowling: Srinath 10-0-52-2, Agarkar 9-0-47-1, Prasad 10-0-52-0, Tendulkar 3-0-23-0, Kumble 10-0-57-1, Singh 3-0-19-1, Ganguly 5-0-16-0

India:

V Laxman c Gilchrist b McGrath 2
S Ganguly run out 100
S Dighe c M. Waugh b Fleming 3
S Tendulkar run out 12
R Dravid c Martyn b S. Lee 60
R Singh not out 33
J Martin run out 0
A Agarkar not out 6

Extras: (lb8, nb7, w10) 25

Total (for six wickets) 241

Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-31, 3-68, 4-177, 5-212, 6-212

Bowling: McGrath 10-1-32-1, Fleming 10-1-39-1, B Lee 10-0-49-0, S Lee 10-0-57-1, Symonds 5-0-28-0, Martyn 5-0-28-0

Australia won by 28 runs

Next match: Australia v India at Sydney on Friday