Australia hoped to utilise the good batting conditions in Sydney and hence, the skipper, Mitchell Marsh, opted to bat first. However, the innings didn't pan out exactly the way they would have wanted, as India bowled Australia out for just 236. Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head gave Australia a good start and all of the top six got starts but failed to convert as Harshit Rana, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Washington Sundar combined to put out a sensational bowling effort to keep the visitors' hopes alive of winning the final game of the series.
Head, who scored a quickfire 29 off just 25 balls at the top, completed 3,000 runs in ODIs and became the fastest Australian to get to the milestone. Head took 76 innings to reach 3,000 ODI runs, three fewer than Steve Smith, who held the record previously for Australia. Overall, former South Africa opener Hashim Amla holds the record, having achieved 3,000 runs in just 57 ODI innings.
Fastest to 3,000 ODI runs for Australia (innings)
76 - Travis Head
79 - Steve Smith
80 - Michael Bevan
80 - George Bailey
Fastest to 3,000 ODI runs (innings)
57 - Hashim Amla (South Africa)
67 - Shai Hope (West Indies), Fakhar Zaman (Pakistan), Imam ul Haq (Pakistan)
Head and Marsh stitched a 61-run opening stand. Matt Renshaw, coming in at No 4, stroked a well-compiled half-century, but the lack of partnerships and regular wickets didn't help Australia in stretching their total beyond 260-270. Alex Carey, Matt Short and Cooper Connolly all played good-looking 20s and 30s but couldn't kick on as all six bowlers got their name on the scorecard, led by pacer Rana, who achieved his best figures in ODIs.
237 isn't a daunting target and India will fancy their chances to knock off the target rather quickly to avoid a series whitewash and take some momentum into the T20Is.
