India's hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals hang by a thread after their game against Australia was abandoned due to heavy rain.

Only 42.3 overs were possible in the Group A Champions Trophy clash with Ricky Ponting's side amassing 234 for four thanks largely to half centuries from Tim Paine (56), Michael Hussey (67) and the captain himself, who made 65.

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But a violent thunderstorm then struck towards the end of the innings, flooding large parts of the outfield and forcing umpires Billy Bowden and Ian Gould to declare the match a no-result at Centurion.

It means that both teams were awarded a point each with Australia moving to three in the group, one behind leaders Pakistan, while India (one) and West Indies (none) prop up the table.

It leaves India with a tall order to progress to the last four with one game remaining.

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India will first need to defeat West Indies on Wednesday while hoping Australia lose to Pakistan, who have qualified as a result of tonight's result. MS Dhoni's side's hopes, however, are complicated by a vastly inferior run rate with Australia (+1.000) some way ahead of India (-1.080).

On the field, India made a much-improved start compared to that against Pakistan with Ashish Nehra (one for 38) and Praveen Kumar, in the team in place of RP Singh, bowling impressively to the openers after Ponting won the toss and opted to take first strike.

It's all about numbers!

And it showed with Shane Watson removed for duck - the all-rounder undone while trying to pull away a Nehra bouncer and was easily caught by Harbhajan Singh at midwicket.

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The introduction of Ishant Sharma (one for 53), though, broke the shackles as Paine and Ponting took 16 from his first over and then brought up their 50 partnership from 52 balls

The Australian wicketkeeper then raised his half-century from 51 deliveries with a cheeky reverse sweep off Harbhajan, but was out when he mistimed a conventional sweep off Amit Mishra (one for 45) straight to Harbhajan at midwicket.

It was 128 for two at the halfway stage with Hussey and Ponting going nicely - the pair adding 50 for the third wicket with the captain reaching his 50 from 67 balls.

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However, an excellent direct hit from Gautam Gambhir in the cover boundary region ended the partnership at 88 and brought Ponting's 88-ball knock to a conclusion after he attempted a second run and was run-out at the non-strikers end.

Hussey, who was joined by Cameron White, then brought up a handy 50 from 45 balls as his side reached 200 in the 37th over

The pair shared 50 in the same number of balls, but were pegged back when Hussey found Sachin Tendulkar at long off.

White (35 not out) had just got going when the rain came in and forced a premature end to proceedings.

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Teams:

Australia: SR Watson, TD Paine†, RT Ponting*, MEK Hussey, CJ Ferguson, CL White, JR Hopes, MG Johnson, B Lee, NM Hauritz, PM Siddle.

India: G Gambhir, SR Tendulkar, R Dravid, SK Raina, MS Dhoni*†, V Kohli, A Mishra, Harbhajan Singh, A Nehra, I Sharma, P Kumar.

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