India beat Australia by 7 wickets in 3rd ODI, Dhoni named Player of the Series

Speed Post News Network

Patna : India beat Australia by 7 wickets in the 3rd ODI at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Melbourne, Australia, on January 18, 2019, to win the three-match series 2-1 with wicketkeeper M S Dhoni scoring an unbeaten 87 in 114 balls with 6 fours and Kedar Jadhav an unbeaten 61 in 57 balls with 7 fours. Jadhav hit the winning four. Earlier, spinner Yuzvendra Chahal took 6/42 to bowl Australia out for 230 in 48.4 overs. India had won the toss but opted to bowl.

Chahal was named Player of the Match while Dhoni was named Player of the series though he was not named Player of the Match in any of the three ODI. No sixer was hit was hit in the match. India scored 234/3 in 49.2 overs. It was India’s first ever bilateral ODI series victory in Australia.

Dhoni and Jadhav, who was playing in his first match of the ODI series, were involved in an unbroken 121 partnership for the the 4th wicket. This was Dhoni’s third consecutive fifty in the series. Dhoni was, however, dropped on 0 & 74 during his innings which proved very costly for Australia.

This was after a long time that India’s victory was not fashioned by its top order batsmen : Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and captain Virat Kohli. Rohit fell to Peter Siddle for 9 with one four while Dhawan fell to Marcus Stoinis for 23 in 46 balls without hitting any four or six. Kohli fell to Jhye Rochardson for 46 in 62 balls with just 3 fours. Kohli added 54 runs with Dhoni for the third wicket. He also added 44 runs with Dhawan for the second wicket.

Earlier, Australia were all out for 230 with Peter Handscomb scoring 58 in 63 balls with only 2 fours while Shaun Marsh scored 39 in 54 balls with 3 fours. Usman Khwaja scored 34 in 51 balls with 2 fours while Glen Maxwell scored 26 in 19 balls with 5 fours. Fast bowler Jhye Richardson made 16 while Peter Siddle made 10. Captain and opener Aaron Finch fell to Bhuvaneshwar Kumar for 14 continuing his poor run in the series while his opening partner Alex Carey, wicketkeeper, fell to Bhuvaneshwar for 5. Stoinis made 10.

Chahal took 6/42 in 10 overs. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar took 2/28 in 8 overs while Mohammad Shami took 2/47. India had won the four-match test series 2-1, the first series victory in Australia in 71 years. The three-match T20 series ended 1-1.