Building on the platform provided by the openers, India went on to score 291 for four and eventually beat Australia by eight runs. Tendulkar, however, did not return to field.

"He has a little strain and that's why he did not field today. It's not serious and I guess he would be okay by tomorrow. It's too trivial a niggle to make him doubtful for the next match," team manager Lalchand Rajput told PTI.

Tendulkar's absence also denied captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni the option of tossing the ball to the Mumbaikar who often proves quite a handful because of his bag of tricks.

During the match, Tendulkar achieved two significant milestone in what was his 399th ODI.

The right-hander's 79 took him past Pakistan's Inzamam-ul-Haq as the player with the highest -- 84 -- half centuries in one-dayers.

Tendulkar also became the highest run-scorer against Australia in ODIs, surpassing Desmond Haynes' tally of 2,262 runs.

He also became the second Indian batsman, after Ganguly, to complete 1,000 runs in this calendar year. (Agencies)