India vs Australia 3rd ODI: MS Dhoni, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kedar Jadhav guide India to maiden bilateral series win Down Under

India vs Australia 3rd ODI: Yuzvendra Chahal picked up 6 wickets to help India bowl the Aussies out for 230 and MS Dhoni brought all his experience to the fore and scored an unbeaten 87 to help the team chase the total down.

Team India ended their Australian sojourn in perfect fashion as they trumped the hosts by 7 wickets in the third and final one-day international at Melbourne to win the three-match series 2-1, their first ever bilateral series win down under. The historic tour had earlier seen Virat Kohli lead India to their first ever Test series victory in Australia too.

India's Yuzvendra Chahal and India's Virat Kohli, left, react during their one day international cricket match against Australia in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 18, 2019. (AP)

India chased down Australia’s below par total of 230 all out with relative ease eventually as an industrious MS Dhoni played yet another match-winning knock, staying till the end to see the chase through. The Australian bowlers made a match out of it on a tricky surface but eventually Dhoni (87*) along with the maverick Kedar Jadhav (61 runs off 57 balls), playing his first match of the series, stitched together an unbeaten 121-run stand to get the job done.

Coming into the match with the series locked at 1-1, Virat Kohli won an important toss and elected to field first on a sluggish pitch where the ball was not coming on to the bat and most importantly, taking a lot of spin.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar did his job with the new ball as he removed the opening duo of Alex Carey (5) and captain Aaron Finch (14) to reduce the Aussies to 27 for 2 in the ninth over. Australia’s man in form Shaun Marsh then put the innings back on track as he put together 73 runs for the third wicket with Peter Handscomb. But Marsh was dismissed for 39 by Yuzvendra Chahal, drafted into the team in place of Kuldeep Yadav. From then on it was a Chahal show as the leggie spun a web around the Australian batsmen to rip the heart out of the middle order.

Chahal finished with figures of 6/42, the best by a spinner in Australia, as the Aussies meandered their way to be dismissed for 230 in 48.4 overs. Handcomb top scored with 58.

India were dealt a blow early on as in form opener Rohit Sharma was sent back for 9 by Peter Siddle. Shikhar Dhawan and skiper Virat Kohli calmed the nerves with a 44-run stand before Dhawan was sent back for 23 by Marcus Stoinis. The medium pacer would have made it two wickets in back to back deliveries but Glenn Maxwell dropped MS Dhoni who was yet to open his account,

That drop would come back to haunt the hosts as Dhoni along with Virat Kohli (46) put together 54 runs for the third wicket to take India closer to the target, although run making was extremely difficult as the Australian bowlers kept it tight in the middle overs. With the asking rate creeping up Kohli was forced to play a shot outside the off stump and Jhye Richardson managed to induce an edge as the Carey did the rest. With India at 113/3 and the required rate hovering around 6 runs per over, the hosts were well and truly back in the match.

Kedar Jadhav walked in to bat under these trying circumstances and completely changed the complexion of the match. Jadhav showed great maturity as he partnered Dhoni to take the match deeper. While Dhoni took his time to get the runs, Jadhav kept the asking rate under check by hitting the occasional boundaries. The duo targetted Stoinis and Siddle to eventually get the job done with ease with 4 balls to spare.

This is India’s first win in a bilateral ODI series in Australia. They have earlier won multi-nation tournaments twice down under. Dhoni, who scored three consecutive half-centuries in the series, was awarded the Man of the Series award while Chahal was the Man of the Match.