On a true, flat pitch, Shane Watson made India's bowlers pay dearly for every small error they made in length. The flicks he played some of the more illustrious Hyderabad batsmen wouldn't mind playing. And the pull shots, even from slightly back of a length, put India's bowlers completely off their plan. Sixty-five of his runs came through midwicket and behind square on the off side, suggesting too many balls on the shorter side. But it was as much about Watson's creating the length with his quick eye and footwork as he transformed another conservative start by Australia into a frenetic boundary-fest from the seventh over on. Shaun Marsh played the perfect second fiddle, alternating the strike efficiently and letting Watson inflict all the damage. Australia have not followed the Virender Sehwag model of opening the innings in this series, and 24 for 0 from six overs seemed an extension of their three earlier stars: 28 for 1 in six in Vadodara, 40 for 0 in 10 in Delhi, and 37 for 1 in 10 in Mohali. Watson was 10 off 17 ball then, and Marsh 12 off 19. Watson then got two gifts from Praveen Kumar in the seventh: a leg-stump volley was flicked ferociously for four, and a short and wide delivery cut to point boundary. Three sixes and five fours in the next five overs later, Praveen, Ashish Nehra and Munaf Patel (in for Ishant Sharma) were left smarting, and the score had rocketed to 80 for 0. That Marsh did his job showed in how he played only nine of those deliveries. And two of them he hit for fours. The surge, though, was all about Watson. Amid ferocious pulling over midwicket, he managed aesthetically appealing shots too: a flick over midwicket off Nehra's bowling and a straight six off Munaf. One of the pulls brought up his 50, in the 11th over, off just 40 balls. From 97 for 0 in 15 overs, Australia went into consolidation mode, but still managed to hit the loose deliveries for four, hitting Ravindra Jadeja out of the attack, and making MS Dhoni go to Yuvraj. Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh managed to slow things down and bring the run-rate under six, and were unfortunate in not getting a wicket each. Marsh was dropped by Dhoni on 29, and Yuvraj failed to latch on to a tough return catch from Watson, who was on 90 then, in the 23rd over. What's more, he went off the field having hurt his hand. Sahun Marsh was still on field batting at 98. The last batsman out was Ponting (49) bowled out by P Kumar.