Australia rode on Brett Lee's thunderbolts Friday to beat India by 18 runs to enter the DLF Cup triangular series final where they will clash with the West Indies Sunday.
Both teams needed to win this encounter, a virtual semi-final, to progress to the final to be played at the Kinrara Oval.
But after Indian bowlers did well to bowl out the world champions for 213 in 48.1 overs, their batsmen again - barring Dinesh Mongia -- flopped and folded up for 195 in 43.5 overs in the face of some fine bowling by Lee and the others.
Lee grabbed five wickets for 38 runs in 8.5 overs to scythe through the famed Indian batting line that failed to deliver for the second successive time.
He was deservedly adjudged the Man of the Match, while Stuart Clark and Brad Hogg chipped in with wicket apiece.
Only Mongia, who replaced Yuvraj Singh in the XI, withstood Australia's pace attack while scoring a responsible 63 not out (90 balls, 5x4s) after Ricky Ponting won the toss and chose to bowl.
Mongia's was the lone high point of Indian batting that struggled right from the start when in-form Sachin Tendulkar departed in the third over of the innings bowled by Lee.
By the half way mark of the innings India were tottering at 96 for five, with Virender Sehwag (10), No. 3 Mohammed Kaif (21), Rahul Dravid (7) and Suresh Raina (26) back in the pavilion.
While batsmen fumbled at the other end, Mongia, playing his first match after 17 months, displayed remarkable maturity while staying at the wicket.
He found a willing partner in Mahendra Singh Dhoni and the two added 62 for the sixth wicket -- and raised hopes of a revival.
But once Dhoni, who always looked in a tearing hurry to score, was out the rest of the tail failed to wag. Not even Harbhajan Singh, who had batted so well in the previous match against the West Indies.
Earlier, for the second successive match the Indian bowling attack put up a fine display.
Left-arm pacer Rudra Pratap Singh and Ajit Agarkar were the pick of the six-man attack.
At one stage, they had pushed Australia against the wall. They were struggling at 97 for five -- and 117 for six - before Hayden (66 balls, 9x4s) and Haddin (63 balls, 1x4, 3x6s) dug their feet in. They scored 77 for the seventh wicket to bail out the team and helped put up a decent total.
Munaf Patel, Harbhajan Singh and Mongia took one wicket each.