From 0-2 down, Khawaja, Zampa, Cummins and Handscomb stun India
Jasprit Bumrah's discipline and wickets shared among the rest meant that the Australians lost 6 for 54 in 77 balls in the final overs
Jasprit Bumrah's discipline and wickets shared among the rest meant that the Australians lost 6 for 54 in 77 balls in the final overs
Scorer: @Thilak_Rama | Commentator: Alagappan Muthu
What a series it has been. The smiles on the faces of the Australian team tells you a story. Must have been so worth it for all their fans who stayed up late in the night/early in the morning to watch this? Hope you enjoyed our coverage, we certainly enjoyed bringing it to you. Lots of post-game analysis coming up from New Delhi, so watch out for those. For the moment, this is the duo of Shashank Kishore and Alagappan Muthu saying goodbye on behalf of our scoring colleague Thilak Gowda. Cheers!
It's time for the presentation
Aaron Finch, the winning captain: Unbelievable, the resilience and fight we showed, being 0-2 down, it would've been easy to roll over, but the fight we showed makes it a great achievement. Proud of the group. If you just go with attacking batsmen in these conditions, you'll struggle. You need good batsmanship on these wickets. I've been coming here for a while now, trying to win, hadn't happened. That's why this makes it special. People have written us off for a while, we knew the style and plans we wanted to play with are all there and can win us the World Cup. It's about believing we're good enough, we did that in four out of the five games. Great series all around.
Usman Khawaja is the Player of the Match for his 100 off 106 balls. He's also the Player of the series for finishing as the highest run-scorer.
"Scoring hundreds is even more fun if you win games," he says. "Never easy to beat India at home, so we're very excited. We all adapted really well, end of the day, it was a really good team performance. Even when we lost the first two games, we had great vibes in the camp."
Virat Kohli: We certainly thought it was a gettable target, they got away from us in the end, 15-20 more than what we could have kept them to. Overall, Australia deserved to win, they played with more passion, hunger and heart. Were brave in pressure situations, they way they raised their intensity meant they were deserving winners.
On dew: We didn't even consider dew in this game, can't predict these things. Can't take any excuses, have to live up to the potential. It's good we have had these losses, to correct these at the World Cup. The guys will reflect on this series quite a bit, been playing a lot of games on the road. Can be proud of the cricket we've played last few months, series didn't go well yes, but we've played well.
On No. 4 or 5: We're more or less sorted, now it's about giving guys their roles and expect them to stand up. Maybe theree's just one spot we've to discuss. Last three games, the idea was to give fringe guys some time and see how they react. No excuses, we're expected to raise our standard of cricket. The changes will never be an excuse. We will take a lot of confidence going into the World Cup.
Justin Langer, Australia's coach: All the credit goes to the players, we help prepare them. They have to perform under pressure. Incredibly proud of the boys. Unless you're the selectors, tough to pick the squad. Been an incredible arm wrestle right from the time India arrived in Australia in the summer. For us to win this series is incredible for Australian cricket. They showed great character, if you look over the whole summer, we've played about 17 games against India. India had the better of us in Australia and we were able to have the better of them here. I think Jhye Richardson and Pat Cummins are developing into a great partnership, Usman Khawaja hasn't played a lot of ODIs but is a class act, he's got himself so fit. Credit goes to him for showing the discipline to get to where he is. You can name the whole group, they've gone a great job.
Peter Handscomb: My role was to try and take the innings as deep as possible, get us into the 40-45th over. Couldn't have done without Uzzi. It means a lot to come over and win a series in India, to do it now in preparation for the World Cup gives us a lot of confidence. Special to come back from 0-2 down, the boys are gelling beautifully, boys are having fun, great to win from where we did. Very happy.
Pat Cummins: Take 14 wickets in the series on these wickets anyday. Felt like I bowled well in the Aussie summer, glad it has clicked. Hopefully I can continue this at the World Cup. We always tend to peak around the World Cup, with a few guys set to come back, it's going to be a tough job to pick our World Cup squad. Just playing consistent cricket, a series of five matches, two T20Is, it's been a reasonable series. Always enjoy coming to India.
9.15pm Justin Langer is grinning from ear to ear, he let out a roar as the last wicket feel. Khawaja ran in from the ropes. Finch, whose form has been patchy, has a fist-pump. Maxwell exults in joy. This has been a special, special victory. Both sides shake hands, the series has been played in superb spirits, minus all the spite contests between these two sides have known to have produced in the past. There's mutual admiration, mutual respect and competitive edge, as always.
So much to think about for India. Their quota of games is now over heading into the World Cup, while Australia have five more matches to look at their combination in the UAE, where they will take on Pakistan.
India's middle order issues persist. Who bats at No. 4? Rayudu? Rahul? Vijay? MS Dhoni? Plenty of questions, few answers. Australia have healthy batting headaches to manage, especially when Smith and Warner return. Remember, their bans expire on March 29 and they'll be back for the IPL. Before that, they'll link up with the Australia squad in UAE for three days.
Kuldeep Yadav b Stoinis 8 (12b 1x4 0x6) SR: 66.66
A year ago, he wasn't in the ODI scheme of things; after 383 runs in India, he might be in the XI in the UK whether Smith and Warner are back or not
Australia captain lauds the team's resilience and for having emerged from India with belief in their plans and their ability
Pat Cummins and Usman Khawaja top the charts at the end of Australia's memorable series win
The India captain said that Australia were more composed in the pressure moments during the series
Time is running out and he's under immense scrutiny. Time will tell if Delhi ODI is make or break with the big prize looming