India beat Australia to win series

India have beaten Australia by nine runs to win their best-of-three finals series 2-0.

Sachin Tendulkar scored a superb 91 and paceman Praveen Kumar went on to capture four wickets as the tourists followed up Sunday's six-wicket win in Sydney with a thrilling victory at the Gabba in Brisbane.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting was gracious in defeat, saying the Indians fully deserved their victory: "All credit has to go to the Indian team for the way they've played in the last week".

"Our level of cricket over the last week has dropped off so that's disappointing ... but we can't take anything away from India, they dominated us in these two games," he added.

It was a sweet victory for the Indians after they lost the test series 2-1 and have been embroiled in a long-running feud with their opponents all summer.

The tour was almost cancelled after the Australians accused Harbhajan Singh of racially abusing Andrew Symonds during the second test.

Adam Gilchrist, in his final appearance before retiring from international cricket, was caught behind for two off the third ball of the innings.

"It's just been a magic ride," Gilchrist said. "It hasn't been the fairytale ending tonight but it's certainly been a fairytale career," he said.

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