India fail to register series whitewash over Australia with a loss in the final ODI

Despite clinching the series ahead of the third ODI, the Indian cricket team couldn’t really capitalize on the 2-0 lead as the whitewash slipped out of their hands despite a resonating performance from their top four batters. The Indian tail failed to knit together the kind of resistance that was expected from them and despite a valiant push in patches, Australia’s 353-run target proved too far to get.

Winning the toss, Australia opted to bat first which saw David Warner (56) and Mitchell Marsh getting off to an absolute flier. The duo posted 78 runs for the opening stand before Prasidh Krishna removed the left-hander, while the latter was joined by Steve Smith in the center to extend the imperious Aussie dominance.

India were constantly under the pump as the Aussie duo found boundaries at will, until Kuldeep Yadav sent Marsh on his way with Krishna pouched a sitter, removing the opener for 96. Shortly thereafter, Siraj produced the big wicket of Smith (74) with a ball that kept low and hit the Australian on his pads.

However, the torment for India continued as up next in the queue of Aussie dominators was Marnus Labuschagne, who blasted 72 from 58 balls, playing a big hand in propelling Australia to a staggering 352. All the Indian bowlers got whacked around and wickets were hard to come by, with Jasprit Bumrah claiming three scalps to outshine the others.

India got off to a decent start too as Rohit Sharma brought out the heavy artillery early in the innings but Washington Sundar (18), who opened the batting in Shubman Gill’s absence, couldn’t really add much to the herculean effort that was being put in by the Indian skipper.

However, the arrival of Virat Kohli soothed the nerves in the Indian dressing room as the duo kept the scoreboard ticking at a breezy pace, posting 70 runs for the second wicket before Rohit (81) offered a return catch to Glenn Maxwell.

Virat did try and continue his share of resistance, scoring a crucial 56 but fell to his RCB teammate, Maxwell, as India felt the wobble for the first time. Shreyas Iyer (48) and KL Rahul (36) did put in their own shard of resilience but the efforts weren’t enough to keep the Indian wheels in motion.

Ravindra Jadeja proved to be the final warrior with a resolute 35 but India were eventually skittled out for 286 as RCB all-rounder Maxwell was the pick of the lot and also the Player of the Match for his figures of 4/40.