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Indianapolis Colts running back Joseph Addai runs for a score as New Orleans Saints safety Darren Sharper defends during the third quarter. (Chris O’Meara/Associated Press)

Indianapolis and New Orleans are engaged in a Super Bowl nailbiter heading into the fourth quarter, with the Colts up 17-16 on Joseph Addai’s four-yard touchdown run in Miami.

New Orleans stunned the Colts at the beginning of the second half with a successful onside kick. Thomas Morstead executed the kick, with Hank Baskett of the Colts unable to corral the first touch for Indianapolis.

Devry Henderson hauled in two passes from Drew Brees to set up a 16-yard scoring play from running back Pierre Thomas, who caught a screen pass and eluded several Colts to dive into the end zone for the first New Orleans lead of the game.

The Saints offence had managed to keep NFL most valuable player Peyton Manning off the field for most of the middle part of the game, but the Colts quarterback coolly responded with a 27-yard pass to Dallas to Clark between three defenders to place Indianapolis back in scoring position.

Addai ran it in from four yards, spinning and outfighting two New Orleans defenders for his first Super Bowl touchdown.

The Saints drove right back downfield, but Colts safety Melvin Bullitt made a key tackle on tight end Jeremy Shockey to force New Orleans to settle for a 47-yard Garrett Hartley kick.

The Saints were stuffed on a fourth-down play near the Indianapolis goal-line, the largest play in the second quarter. Thomas was knocked back by Indianapolis linebackers Gary Brackett and Clint Session on the play with 1:55 left in the half.

But Brees led his offensive unit on a pair of time-chewing scoring drives in the stanza to get momentum back, with Hartley earlier accounting for the first Super Bowl points in New Orleans history with a 46-yard field goal. Hartley added a 44-yard field goal on the last play of the half.

The key offensive play for the Colts in the second saw wide receiver Pierre Garcon drop a catchable pass on third down to halt progress.

Garcon caught a 19-yard touchdown pass from Peyton Manning late in the first for a 10-0 Indianapolis lead. The touchdown completed a 96-yard scoring drive that was propelled by 53 combined yards from running back Joseph Addai.

Manning led the Colts to a 38-yard Matt Stover field goal on the team’s first drive. He found favourite target Clark for two passes and made a third-down conversion to Austin Collie on the nearly six-minute scoring drive.

Brees and the Saints, who received the opening kickoff, completed just one first down in two drives to start the game as Colts defenders provided excellent coverage on his intended targets.

The championship game pits two NFL teams who combined to win their first 27 regular-season games this season.

Indianapolis (16-2) has yet to lose this season when playing their starters for all four quarters, while New Orleans (13-3) has rebounded from a dip in December to score 76 points in two playoff games.

The Saints are playing in the Super Bowl for the first time since playing their first NFL game in 1967.

The Colts are looking for the third Super Bowl win in franchise history. Indianapolis won in 2007, also in Miami, while the Baltimore Colts were victorious in 1971.

The Super Bowl is being played in Miami area for the 10th time. Conditions were clear, with a game time temperature of 17 C in front of a stadium crowd that favours New Orleans, which is just a 90-minute flight away.

Exit polls showed pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovych with a narrow lead over Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in Ukraine’s presidential run-off election Sunday.

Ukrainian opposition leader and presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych speaks to the media in Kiev on Sunday. (Sergei Chuzavkov/Associated Press)Yanukovych declared victory, but Tymoshenko, a leader of Orange forces, rejected the exit poll data and said the race was too close to call.

“It is too soon to draw any conclusions,” she said, urging supporters to fight for every ballot.

Ukraine’s Central Election Commission reported early Monday that Yanukovych was leading Tymoshenko by 51.3 per cent to 43.3 per cent with 27.4 per cent of the vote counted.

The National Election Poll exit survey predicted that after the count, Yanukovych would capture 48.5 per cent of the vote to 45.7 per cent for Tymoshenko, with other voters mostly choosing “against all.”

The 2.8-percentage-point gap is only slightly larger than the NEP’s margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 per cent.

The NEP poll initially showed Yanukovych with a 3.2-percentage-point lead, but later released revised figures. All other major exit polls had Yanukovych winning, some by larger margins.

The race narrowed sharply from the first round vote on Jan. 17, when Yanukovych held a 10 per cent lead.

Tymoshenko has vowed to challenge a vote she claims was rigged by in Yanukovych’s favour, as it was in the 2004 elections that set off the Orange Revolution.

Tymoshenko’s campaign chief Alexander Turchinov insisted Sunday there was evidence of fraud. “Intrigue still remains in place, we remain certain,” he said.

But Matyas Eorsi, head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s election observation mission, called the balloting “cool” and “professional” and said there was no evidence the vote had been stolen.

“We are 100 per cent sure that this election was legitimate,” Eorsi said. “All the international community, and even more vital the Ukrainian public, can accept this result.”

A preliminary report by international monitors is expected later Monday.

The election commission projected the turnout among Ukraine’s 37 million voters at about 70 per cent, 3.2 percentage points higher than the Jan. 17 first-round vote in which 18 candidates competed.

Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Pierre Garcon accounted for the only toucdown in the first half of Super Bowl XLIV, but also had a key drop to give New Orleans some momentum. (Charlie Riedel/Associated Press)

The New Orleans Saints were stuffed on a fourth-down play near the Indianapolis goal-line, the key play in the second quarter, and the Colts led 10-6 at halftime of Super Bowl XLIV in Miami.

Running back Pierre Thomas was knocked back by Indianapolis linebackers Gary Brackett and Clint Session on the play with 1:55 left in the half.

But Saints quarterback Drew Brees led his offensive unit on a pair of time-chewing scoring drives in the stanza to get momentum back, with Garrett Hartley earlier accounting for the first Super Bowl points in New Orleans history with a 46-yard field goal.

Hartley added a 44-yard field goal on the last play of the half.

The key offensive play for the Colts in the second saw wide receiver Pierre Garcon drop a catchable pass on third down to halt progress.

Garcon caught a 19-yard touchdown pass from Peyton Manning late in the first for a 10-0 Indianapolis lead. The touchdown completed a 96-yard scoring drive that was propelled by 53 combined yards from running back Joseph Addai.

Manning led the Colts to a 38-yard Matt Stover field goal on the team’s first drive. He found favourite target Dallas Clark for two passes and made a third-down conversion to Austin Collie on the nearly six-minute scoring drive.

Brees and the Saints, who received the opening kickoff, completed just one first down in two drives to start the game as Colts defenders provided excellent coverage on his intended targets.

The championship game pits two NFL teams who combined to win their first 27 regular-season games this season.

Indianapolis (16-2) has yet to lose this season when playing their starters for all four quarters, while New Orleans (13-3) has rebounded from a dip in December to score 76 points in two playoff games.

The Saints are playing in the Super Bowl for the first time since playing their first NFL game in 1967.

The Colts are looking for the third Super Bowl win in franchise history. Indianapolis won in 2007, also in Miami, while the Baltimore Colts were victorious in 1971.

The Super Bowl is being played in Miami area for the 10th time. Conditions were clear, with a game time temperature of 17 C in front of a stadium crowd that favours New Orleans, which is just a 90-minute flight away.