Two Indians scored hundreds in the fifth game of the ongoing one-day series, but the home team still finished on the losing side.

Opener Gautam Gambhir and skipper Rahul Dravid provided only the fifth instance of two Indians reaching three figures in the same ODI, only to end up as losers.

The previous four instances are as follows:

* Sanjay Manjrekar (105) & Ravi Shastri (109) v South Africa at Delhi, 1991-92: This was South Africa's first win in an official one-day international. India batted first in a day-night affair at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in New Delhi and finished with 287-4. The ground, basically meant for athletics, provided the unusual spectacle of an outfield made up of four different components; grass, 'Turtan' (the athletic track) , the artificial grass over the long jump pit, and tarpaulins.

A crowd of 75,000 watched Ravi Shastri and Sanjay Manjrekar put on 175 for the second wicket at a monumental seven runs per over. Kepler Wessels' third consecutive fifty (90) of the series, Peter Kirsten's unbeaten 86 and Adrian Kuiper's 63 not out guided South Africa to comfortable win by a whopping margin of eight wickets.

* Mohammad Azharuddin (111*) & Ajay Jadeja (119) v Sri Lanka at Colombo, 1997: A world record fifth - wicket partnership between Azharuddin and Jadeja proved inadequate to take India to victory . Chasing an imposing target of 303, India lost its first four wickets with only 64 on the board. Azharuddin and Jadeja then got together to add 223. India got to 300, just three short of victory with three wickets in hand, before running out of deliveries.

* Sourav Ganguly (127) & Sachin Tendulkar ( 101) v South Africa at Johannesburg, 2001-02: Skipper Ganguly and Tendulkar hit centuries to help India amass 279-5. However, the Proteas overhauled the total for the loss of only four wickets, and with ten balls to spare. Gary Kirsten led the chase with a splendid unbeaten 133.

This was one of Ganguly's best innings. He blasted five sixes, and in fact reached his hundred three balls before his opening partner Tendulkar completed fifty! The duo put on 193 runs for the first wicket.

· V.V.S.Laxman(106*) & Yuvraj Singh ( 139) v Australia at Sydney , 2003-04:

A last-over six by Brett Lee helped Australia scamper home to an exciting two-wicket victory. Laxman hit his second ODI century against Australia in five days. Incidentally, he scored his first four ODI hundreds against the Aussies. His was a leisurely effort compared to Yuvraj Singh's 122-ball 139. The duo added 213 runs for the fourth wicket as India reached 296 for four in their stipulated 50 overs .