Team India beat Australia comprehensively in the third and final ODI to avoid the series whitewash on Saturday, October 25, in Sydney, with the two men of the moment, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, at the front and centre of it, fittingly. The series was advertised, marketed and set aside as the comeback assignment for the two senior pros of Indian cricket, playing in national colours after more than seven months and after not-so-great first two matches for the team, when the Men in Blue needed the most, they delivered and how, stitching an unbeaten 168-run partnership to get their side over the line.
One smashed an ODI century after a couple of years, the other was just happy that he got off the mark. The objective was the same, to get India over the line on their own, but how they achieved it was quite contrast. Kohli was just happy playing the second fiddle, scoring the boundary if the ball was there, if not, just kept giving Rohit the strike and wanted to stay in the middle since the target was manageable. Rohit, on the other hand, looked to count on the rhythm he got in the last game to score a bit freely this time around.
It started with the bowlers
Obviously, the bowlers won it for India, no question about it. Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar and Co. did the job with the ball, not letting any partnership build as all of the top six Australian batters got starts but couldn't kick on to get their side's score somewhere around 270-280. 237 was always going to be a below-par target, even if you take the underconfident batting line-up into account.
Having a target in front of them helped both Rohit and the new captain, Shubman Gill, early on to gauge the pitch first and if it was there to hit, both went for it. Josh Hazlewood's consistency paid off as he got Gill to poke at one. After that, it was just the packed SCG crowd having their popcorn to enjoy the joy, the two senior men put on and turned the clock back in style. For once, even the opposition skipper, Mitchell Marsh, wouldn't have minded what he was seeing unfold in front of his eyes.
Rohit went into overdrive after completing his half-century and was making the likes of Adam Zampa, Matt Short and Nathan Ellis look like club-level bowlers. Kohli, on the other hand, survived a close LBW shout and after being saved by the umpire's call, put his head down and focused on spending time and staying unbeaten rather than playing anything extravagant. Both were successful in their personal and team objectives.
Rohit completed his 33rd ODI century and 50th hundred overall across formats, while Kohli brought up an important fifty and even after getting to his milestone, he was happy turning the strike over to the former. The bowling looked even more toothless for Australia as the innings went on and India completed the formality in the 39th over.
For Australia, this was a much-needed series win, a first in the last four and first one for Mitchell Marsh as captain, as they continue their rebuilding phase in the ODIs after the retirements of Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis from the format. Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly and Matt Renshaw were big positives for the hosts as they look ahead to the 2027 World Cup.
India have the momentum and Australia will have the big guns arrive for the T20Is as the two teams will now shift focus to the shortest international format, with the series set to kick off on Wednesday in Canberra.
