Team India wins Melbourne match by 7 wickets, series by 2-1

Melbourne: In the 3^rd and deciding match in the ODI series played here, team India beat Australia by 7 wickets on Friday. Because of this match, India has now won the Gillette ODI series by 2-1.

India had won the toss and asked the hosts to bat first. Aussies managed to put 230 runs on board. They were all out by 48.4 overs. Peter Handscomb scored the highest of 58.

Yuzvendra Chahal tore through the opposition by taking 6 wickets. Bhuvneswar Kumar and Mohammad Shami took 2 wickets each.

Charismatic performance by MS Dhoni and partnership with Captain Virat Kohli first and later with Kedar Jadhav propelled India to the historic win at Melbourne today.

Chahal was awarded Man of the Match. MS Dhoni was awarded with Man of the Series. Australian ex-cricketing legend Adam Gilchrist handed over the trophies.

Post-Match Presentation

During presentation ceremony Kohli praised his teams’ efforts and said, “We have been here for a long time. It’s been an amazing tour for us. We drew the T20 series, won the Test and the ODI series. If someone gave me these results before the tour I would have taken it with both hands. I am really grateful and proud of the side. It was a collective effort. We are feeling confident and balanced as a side with the World Cup in mind. Few games against New Zealand and few more back home to strengthen the areas that we need to work on as a team.” He also praised Chahal and Jadhav’s efforts today.

Australian Captain Aaron Finch was disappointed with his team’s performance today. He blamed the few dropped catches today but was mostly despirited by the pitch. He said,” Today maybe we got impatient, looking at something much higher than what the wicket allowed. Maybe we should have set our targets lower on those sort of pitches.”

The three formats that India played in and with Australia has been nothing but a miledtone for Team India and its fans. India became the first overseas team visiting down under to not lose any Test, ODI and T20 series in the same tour. The T20 series was drawn at 1-1 each. Then came the test series of Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which Team India won by 2-1. Lastly, at the Gillette ODI series which the guests again won by 2-1.

World Cup 2019 is set to begin from 30^th May. With Team India’s continual great performances, fans are expecting a re-run of 1983 and 2011 World Cups.

Also Read: Vijay Shankar Makes His ODI Debut As India Face Australia In Melbourne