Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were at the centre stage as India avoided whitewash against Australia. The pair put on a show for a packed crowd in Sydney Cricket Ground to clinch a consolation victory by nine wickets.
The Men in Blue came into the third ODI on the back of back-to-back defeats at Perth and Adelaide, respectively. They needed a strong performance here at SCG to avoid a whitewash on the Australian soil.
Chasing 237, India lost captain Shubman Gill in the 11th over after a 69-run partnership with Rohit. Virat Kohli then walked in to a standing ovation from the SCG for what’s likely to be his final innings Down Under.
The legendary pair then put on an unbeaten stand of 168 runs to finish the game. Rohit scored a sublime century, hitting 121 not out in 125 balls while Virat remained unbeaten on 74 off 81 deliveries. With this knock, Rohit joined Sachin Tendulkar at the top to hit the most (9) number of ODI centuries against Australia.
Two superstars, who have won India countless matches, celebrated yet another win together.
Watch the winning moment below:
Earlier in the day, Indian bowlers did an outstanding job to restrict the hosts to just 236. Harshit Rana was the pick of the bowlers with 4 for 39 while Washington Sundar bagged 2 for 44 in his 10 overs. This marks the first victory for India under Gill’s captaincy reign.
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Coming into this series, there was lots of chatter around whether this will be the farewell series for Ro-Ko. Under the head coach Gautam Gambhir, India have moved on from the pair in the other two formats. With the next World Cup still a couple of years away, there have been question marks on their participation.
However, the superstar duo has made their intentions clear and have showed the management that they are still hungry. Virat Kohli had two ducks in the first two games of the series but returned among runs at SCG. It was vintage Kohli in a run-chase as he surpassed Kumar Sangakkara for the second highest run-scorer in ODI history.
Rohit was among runs in the second ODI as well, where he hit 73 after surviving a challenging phase with the new ball. India will next play a fifty-over series in November-December, when they host South Africa. Safe to say the pair has earned themselves some breathing room with this match-winning partnership.
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