The Indian batsmen could not achieve the target of 314 set by Australia thus allowing Australia to halve the lead to 2-1. Kohli won the toss for India and chose to field first anticipating dew in the evening which makes gripping the ball difficult. That makes it difficult for the bowlers and the fielders, but the dew did not arrive and India was left to deal with an asking rate of 6.28 runs per over which proved too much for them.
On a flat wicket where the ball came on to the bat nicely, the two Australian openers immediately took after the Indian bowlers. Captain Aaron Finch scored his first half-century in 22 limited overs innings and Usman Khawaja his maiden ODI century. Aaron Finch was in great touch through his inning plundering ten boundaries and three sixes on his way to a belligerent 93 off 99 balls. The two openers put on a partnership of 193 runs before Aaron Finch was given out lbw.
Aaron Finch was particularly harsh on Kedar Jadhav depositing his first delivery into the stands for a six. Two more sixes were to follow from his bowling. Jadhav’s two overs cost 32 runs. Khawaja played a judicious inning mixing caution with aggression and crossed the century mark for the first time in his career. He was aggressive against the bowling of Vijay Shankar and Kuldeep Yadav sending a few of their deliveries to the boundaries and one over it. Khawaja fell when he tried to pull a Mohammed Shami delivery through mid-wicket where Jasprit Bumrah took a catch.
Maxwell played a cameo in his usual style scoring 47 runs off 31 balls with three hits to the fence and three over it before he was run out in a brilliant fashion Jadeja and Dhoni. Shaun Marsh played Kuldeep through the cover where Jadeja gathered the ball. After contemplating a bit he sent a throw to the wicketkeeper. Dhoni did not attempt to gather the ball but just deflected it on to the stumps, catching Maxwell short of the crease.
The ball was starting to grip the surface now and Kuldeep Yadav limited Australia’s scoring with the wickets of Shaun Marsh and Peter Handscomb in the same over. Marcus Stoinis and Alex Carey kept their head about them and added another 38 runs in the last four over to see Australia to a total of 313 runs for the loss of 5 wickets.
India started their inning disastrously losing Shikhar Dhawan to a diving Maxwell at point, off the bowling of Jhye Richardson. Pat Cummins, bowling with a scrambled seam, accounted for Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayadu and India were 27 for three in the seventh over. Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli put together a partnership of 59 runs before Dhoni was bowled off an inside edge by Adam Zampa for 26 runs. Mahendra Singh Dhoni had probably batted for the last time in his home city of Ranchi.
With Kedar Jadhav for the company, Kohli started playing some aggressive shots. The pair put on an 88 run partnership in less than 12 overs before Jadhav was dismissed lbw by Zampa for 26 runs. Virat Kohli was particularly severe on Zampa but the bowler had the last laugh when he castled Kohli when he was on 123 runs and India needed 95 more runs off 75 balls. Vijay Shankar scored a rapid-fire 32 off 30 balls before he was caught by Richardson off Nathan Lyon. Jadeja played for some time but with the asking rate climbing all the time the Indians were all out for 281 runs.
With Pat Cummins. Jhye Richardson and Adam Zampa getting three wickets each in the Indian innings, Australia will be pleased with their performance. They will be even happier with the form that Aaron Finch, their captain has displayed. Usman Khawaja who got promising starts in both the ODI's prior to this one, played with authority and scored his maiden hundred. Maxwell, who was batting well, was run out because of Dhoni's presence of mind. Or else India would have had a bigger target to chase.
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