Australia beat India in 3rd ODI to clinch series

India’s bowlers today produced yet another sloppy performance to allow Australia clinch the five match ODI series by taking an unassailable 3-0 lead as they cruised to a three-wicket victory in the third match despite a heroic century by Virat Kohli.

Dhawan, now a Melbourne resident, however batted himself back into form, raising 119 runs with Kohli before shuffling across to expose his leg-stump which was pegged back by a fuller John Hastings delivery.

Finch had fallen early, but with Marsh and Steven Smith timing the ball well, Australia was coasting, until Jadeja spun one enough past Smith to catch the outside edge and land into Ajinkya Rahane’s waiting hands at slip.

Maxwell remained calm despite the dismissals of Shaun Marsh, Mitch Marsh and Matthew Wade that followed, guiding Australia from 150-3 to 295-6.

Put into bat in a must-win game to stay alive in the five-match series, India lost two-time centurion Rohit Sharma (6) early only see Kohli (117) pilot the innings at the huge MCG.

The Indians were well in contention for their first win of the series when they had Australia in trouble at 215 for six.

The Indians have now lost three of their last four ODI series since the World Cup in Australia past year.

Kohli’s sixth boundary hastened his 24th ODI century, while Rahane got to fifty in 54 balls but abandoned his calm to be out next ball to Hastings, a slog pull caught by a combination of Steve Smith and Maxwell at the boundary rope. This was also MS Dhoni’s 300th worldwide match as captain. The hosts replaced Joel Paris with Mitchell Marsh while India handed debuts to Rishi Dhawan and Gurkeerat Singh in place of Ravichandran Ashwin and Manish Pandey. He became the quickest batsman to pass the landmark of the runs scored. Yadav, who conceded 68 runs in 9.5 overs, also took two important wickets but proved a tad too expensive for India. Shikhar was not far behind, bringing up a 76-ball half-century in the next delivery. While they didn’t lose any more wickets, India could only reach 62/1 in the first 15 overs.

With 11 runs needed from 12 balls, Maxwell struck a six and a four before he was caught at mid-off in an attempt to complete his century.