A ragtag Australian team of regulars and replacements answered their captain's plea to win one of the great limited overs matches by three runs against India at Hyderabad.

Fielding an unlikely XI thrown together by injuries and scheduling - six players had fewer than 20 matches to their credit, four less than 10 - Ricky Ponting asked his men for a little more in game five of the series and received exactly that.

That they were able to defend 4-350 and so claim a 3-2 lead with two matches to play, despite the unadulterated greatness of Sachin Tendulkar (175), said much for the team's fighting ability.

"That's what I'm most proud of, everything that's happened over the last couple of weeks, for us to keep finding ways to win games says a lot about the team, a lot about the players and the way we go about it," Ponting said.

"I actually asked the guys for a little bit extra in this game, asked them to be really brave and to play the best form of cricket they possibly could and just back themselves every opportunity.

"I thought in the first half of the game with our batting we did that to a tee, and I think even in the last half of the game with the bowling we did that really well, so it was a great day for us.

"I can tell you now that the guys, even though we probably fought our way out of jail a little in the last half of the game, we were as excited out there and back in the rooms, as we have been for any win that we've had."

No-one personified the composure and resourcefulness of the performance better than Victorian debutant Clint McKay.

Relying on his height and ability to hit an awkward length, McKay also varied his pace to good effect, claiming three top order wickets, including the critical one of Tendulkar, for the admirable figures of 3-59.

Shane Watson, too, deserved plaudits for a staunch allround performance (93 and 3-47) that would have won him the match award on almost any other night.

"(McKay) was very good, he was calm under pressure," said Ponting.

"We had to experiment late in the innings, with lots of different slower balls and things to try and take some wickets.

"If you just kept bowling down the seam and trying to bowl a good length, the wicket was just so good that you'd get hit back over your head, so we had some good discussion about how we thought we could get some wickets.

"Full credit to Clint, he executed things really well, a really good debut on that sort of wickets, I think he ended up with 3-50 odd off his 10, and that's as good as anyone."

The Australians had rested Mitchell Johnson for the fixture, and Ponting admitted the decision had been taken to avoid a repeat of Peter Siddle's loss to side stiffness only three weeks out from the first Test of the home summer.

"With what's happened to us over the last few weeks we've got to manage our players the best we possibly can," he said.

"Mitch after our last game was probably as stiff and as sore as he's been right the way through the last six months, so we felt it was the right thing to give him a rest.

"The last thing we wanted to have was another Siddle-type incident happening to us with some Test matches in mind when we get back to Australia."