Picture : Twitter / BCCI
India came out with a perfect batting performance to clinch the three match ODI series against Australia 2-1. The men in blue won the series decider at M Chinnaswamy stadium Bengaluru by 7 wickets .
Earlier Australian skipper Aaron Finch elected to bat first after winning the toss . The team thanks to a superb ton by Steve Smith (131) off 132 balls and useful knocks by Marnus Labuschagne ( 54) , Alex Carey ( 35) battled hard to score 286 / 9 in their allotted 50 overs. The rest failed to fire . Notably the top two – Aaron Finch ( 19) and David Warner (3). It hurt Aussie big in their attempt to post a big total against India .
For India the wicket- takers were , Mohammed Shami 4/63 (10 overs), Ravindra Jadeja 2/44 (10 overs), Kuldeep Yadav 1/62 (10 overs), Navdeep Saini 1/65 (10 overs)
India were on target during the chase with a positive start by openers . K L Rahul and Rohit Sharma put on 69 for the first wicket before Rahul fell for (19) . Rohit Sharma was in fine form and cracked a superb hundred 119 off 128 balls studded with 8 fours and 6 sixes. Skipper Virat Kohli too ,looked in sublime form and hit a splendid 89 off 91 balls. He hit 8 fours. Rohit and Virat batted Australia out of the match . It was left to Shreyas Iyer ( 44) Manish Pandey ( 8) both unbeaten to give the finishing touches . India won by 15 balls to spare . Scoring 289 / 3 in 47.3 overs. And winning the match by 7 wickets to seal the series.
For the Aussies, it was a hard grind on the field. Their bowling fell apart in the in the last two games and it cost them the series. Pat Cummins 0/64 (7 overs) , Mitchell Starc 0/ 66 (9 overs)
Josh Hazlewood 1/55 (9.3 overs), Ashton Agar 1/ 38 (10 overs), Adam Zampa 1/ 44 (10 overs).
Rohit Sharma was named Man of the Match. While Indian skipper Virat Kohli was named Man of the Series.
