India vs Australia : Five greatest ODIs of all time

4. Seventh ODI, Mumbai, October 2007 (Kartik’s all round performance)

Every ardent Indian fan waited eagerly for Mumbai’s favourite son to sign off from his home ground in style with the kind of knocks he usually played to light up the stands for nearly two decades.

But it took a little-known left-arm spinner to steal the thunder with a magnificent all-round show as the hosts managed to sneak home with two wickets to spare.

On a day when the left-arm bowlers came to the party, Murali Kartik ripped the Australian batting to pieces with a magnificent six-wicket haul, having had two opportunities to take a hat-trick and thwarted every time – the only bit of resistance came from captain Ricky Ponting.

But the Indians fared no better with the bat, slumping to 64/6 before a vital partnership between Robin Uthappa and Harbhajan Singh resuscitated the innings. Mitchell Johnson and Michael Clarke, though, added further twist to the tale by removing both batsmen, and the writing was on the wall for India.

However, Zaheer Khan counter-attacked with a powerful six off Brett Lee, and with the help of nudges, pushes and prods, he and Kartik added the remaining runs to cap a thrilling win.