Melbourne: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (87 n o, 114b, 6×4) rekindled his love affair with final flourishes and anchored India to their maiden bilateral ODI series triumph in Australia for a perfect finish to a historic trip Down Under here Friday.
Virat Kohli’s men thus became the first country to return from Australia without losing a single series having won the Test series 2-1 and drawn the T20 Internationals 1-1.
From a dasher, to a finisher to finally the anchor in the last leg of his career, Dhoni 3.0 was in full flow during India’s successful chase of 231 in the third and final ODI on a sluggish MCG pitch after Yuzvendra Chahal set it up with ODI career best(6/42) figures.
“It wasn’t an easy wicket to bat on, so it was important to take the game deep,” said India skipper Virat Kohli in the post-match presentation.
“Two set batsmen there who knew what to do and they got the job done. We’ve been here a long time, it’s been an amazing tour,” added the Indian skipper.
Dhoni’s unbeaten knock was a testimony to his high quality match awareness as the street-smart Kedar Jadhav (61 n o, 57b, 7×4) donned the role of a finisher. The two put on an unbeaten stand of 121 runs for the fourth wicket to ensure a convincing seven-wicket win for India.
The former India skipper’s role going into the business end of his illustrious career is that of an anchor, who takes the game deep. He performed his role to perfection with world class exhibition of running between the wickets in what could well be his last match on the Australian soil.
Not to forget the ‘Man of the Series’ award for a hat-trick of half centuries and two coming in winning causes.
While Dhoni was lucky to be dropped on zero and 74, the Australian bowling never had the sting to unsettle the Indian batsmen despite skipper Virat Kohli (46) being dismissed with more than 100 runs left.
Chasing 231, India were under pressure early on and lost Rohit Sharma (9) and Shikhar Dhawan by the 17th over. However, Kohli (46) along with Dhoni steadied the ship.
While Kohli and Dhoni added 54 runs off 82 balls for the third wicket, it was an uncharacteristic partnership. There were two incidents of confusion between the wickets – first in the 21st over when Kohli was stranded and was saved for a lack of a direct hit.
Jadhav then soothed Indian nerves as he scored his fourth ODI half century, as the equation came down to 14 needed off 12 balls. He struck two fours in the penultimate over off Peter Siddle (1-56) to close in on the match.
Earlier, Chahal picked up six wickets as Australia were bowled out for 230 runs (48.4 overs). In doing so, he also improved on his previous best of 5-22 against South Africa at Centurion in January 2018.
Chahal varied the pace of his deliveries and also used the deception in his flight to make life miserable for Australian batsmen. For Australia, Peter Handscomb (58) scored a fighting half century. The other four wickets were shared between pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2-28) and Mohammed Shami (2-47).
Scoreboard:
Australia: Alex Carey c Kohli b Bhuvneshwar 5, Aaron Finch lbw b Bhuvneshwar 14, Usman Khawaja c & b Chahal 34, Shaun Marsh st Dhoni b Chahal 39, Peter Handscomb lbw b Chahal 58, Marcus Stoinis c Rohit b Chahal 10, Glenn Maxwell c Bhuvneshwar b Shami 26, Jhye Richardson c Kedar Jadhav b Chahal 16, Adam Zampa c Vijay Shankar b Chahal 8, Peter Siddle n o 10, Billy Stanlake b Shami 0, Extras: (lb-2, wb-8) 10, Total: (all out in 48.4 Overs) 230.
Fall: 1-8, 2-27, 3-100, 4-101, 5-123, 6-161, 7-206, 8-219, 9-228, 10-230.
Bowling: Bhuvneshwar Kumar 8-1-28-2, Mohammed Shami 9.4-0-47-2,Vijay Shankar 6-0-23-0, Kedar Jadhav 6-0-35-0, Ravindra Jadeja 9-0-53-0, Yuzvendra Chahal 10-0-42-6.
India: Rohit Sharma c Marsh b Siddle 9, Shikhar Dhawan c & b Stoinis 23, Virat Kohli c Carey b Richardson 46, MS Dhoni n o 87, Kedar Jadhav n o 61, Extras: (lb-1,wb-7) 8, Total: (for 3 wickets in 49.2 Overs) 234.
Fall: 1-15, 2-59, 3-113.
Bowling: Jhye Richardson 10-1-27-1, Peter Siddle 9-1-56-1, Billy Stanlake 10-0-49-0, Glenn Maxwell 1-0-7-0, Adam Zampa 10-0-34-0, Marcus Stoinis 9.2-0-60-1.
PTI