Twenty20 masters India comfortably accounted for Australia on a barmy night of raucous celebrations for home fans at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.

The world champions in cricket's new format crushed the tourists by seven wickets in the first Twenty20 international played on Indian soil.

Opener Gautam Gambhir (63) led the home side's successful run chase and, after his departure, the big-hitting Yuvraj Singh (31no) lashed Stuart Clark for consecutive sixes.

Captain Mahendra Dhoni struck the winning runs by hitting Brett Lee over the boundary as India claimed victory with 11 balls to spare.

Ricky Ponting's 76 from 53 balls earlier propelled Australia to 5-166 from their 20 overs but Indian spin duo Harbhajan Singh (1-17 off four overs) and Murali Kartik (0-27 off four overs) put the clamps on Australia's innings.

Australia continued their policy of not picking a specialist spinner in the 20-over-a-side game and it hurt them as part-time tweaker Michael Clarke was the most economical bowler.

The result meant consecutive Twenty20 wins for India over Australia after knocking off the World Cup holders in the semi-finals of last month's world championship in South Africa.

Australia's 4-2 triumph in the seven-match one-day series seemed a distant memory for Indian fans who embraced the frenzied new form of the game.

The tourists were outpointed in a few areas with their bowlers not providing enough variety compared to the more enterprising Indian attack.

Security was beefed up following the repeated racial abuse of Andrew Symonds and CCTV cameras installed in the stadium.

But there was no definitive sign of trouble despite Symonds (20) being constantly and loudly booed by the hostile crowd whenever he was part of the action.

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