India's Murali Kartik celebrates as Australia's Mitchell Johnson (right) reacts after India won the seventh and final one-day international by two wickets in Mumbai yesterday. - Reuters

MUMBAI (Reuters):

MURALI KARTIK'S all-round exploits helped India beat Australia by two wickets in the seventh and final one-day international yesterday.

The left-arm spinner spun a web with his first five-wicket haul in one-dayers to bowl out the world champions for 193 in 41.3 overs after the visitors, who had already won the series, opted to bat in the day/night match.

Tremendous help

The 31-year-old Kartik then scored 21 not out and shared an unbroken 52-run stand for the ninth wicket with Zaheer Khan (31 not out) to guide India home with four overs to spare.

Robin Uthappa also struck an entertaining 47 and put on 65 for the seventh wicket with Harbhajan Singh (19) as the hosts rallied in fine style after slumping to 64 for six.

Left-arm paceman Mitchell Johnson had made early inroads by having Saurav Ganguly and Dinesh Karthik caught behind by Adam Gilchrist for ducks.

Gilchrist collected four catches in total to take his tally to 400 in one-day internationals.

Earlier, India left out former captain Rahul Dravid because of his lack of form before skipper Ricky Ponting proceeded to give Australia a flying start with a classy 57.

Kartik then took centrestage by snatching six for 27 in a 10-over spell.

He removed Brad Hodge, Andrew Symonds, Brad Haddin, Brad Hogg, Brett Lee and James Hopes as the visitors collapsed from 117 for three in the 20th over.

Ponting shared half-century stands with Gilchrist and Hodge but Kartik twice claimed two wickets with consecutive deliveries to put the brakes on for India.

Michael Clarke, opening in place of the injured Matthew Hayden, fell first ball to left-arm seamer Zaheer for the second successive game.

Australia, despite their defeat, took the series 4-2 after the opening match was washed out.

The teams next meet in a Twenty20 international on Saturday.