Player of the Match
Player of the Match

10.46pm Right then, that's all from us from this ODI series. We hope you've enjoyed it as much as we did. The T20Is will begin soon, and there's a whole lot of other cricket going on around the world right now too (I wonder if this would have seemed possible six months ago), so keep tuning into our coverage, and keep sending in your comments. Until next time, goodbye!

Nilay: "This game was really good from the perspective that we have T20 series now; good middle over wickets, great death bowling, Bumrah getting vack in the froove(excellent for the Tests too), and also Pandya Power. The series would be good one to look forward for."

Varun Gande: "The curse of the Jadeja fifty is finally broken: India had previously never won an ODI when Jadeja passed 50."

Pizza: "Unpopular opinion but, the toss needs to be scrapped. In a series where both teams consistently scored 300+, and both teams winning every time they won the toss, it's hard to pinpoint who is the better team. Either that, or we need more matches, like a 5-match ODI series to be able to tell " -- I don't think the toss makes this much of a difference normally, so this feels like one of those anomalous series that crop up from time to time.

Aaron Finch: "We fought really well today, just fell a little short. Obviously great partnership between Hardik and Jadeja, we might have been in a good position if we'd nabbed one of them early. I thought Cameron Green came in and made an impact with ball and bat, and showed he belongs at the international level. Ashton Agar played well too, so it was good to get them in and get some information on them. Makes the 50 overs go a little quicker [with two spinners] and the impact they've had is quite important too. That's been our recipe in T20 for a while now. It's nice when guys in the top order have really good contributions, and then Maxy can come in and do his thing in the back end. I thought Alex Carey, Moises, these guys did well too. Hopefully [Starc] is back for the T20s. Just a niggly thing with the back."

Virat Kohli: "It's particularly pleasing that we were under the pump for the first half of our innings, and second half of Australia's, and we fought back both times. One guy making his debut, Shubman coming back, that brought us some freshness. I think the pitch was much better in terms of helping the bowlers, so obviously the confidence levels go up. We were able to put Australia under pressure because of that fact as well. Playing international cricket for 13-14 years, you should be able to come back like we did. I would have liked to go on for a bit longer, but we had a great partnership between Hardik and Jadeja. It was exactly what the team needed to get that boost, even though we've lost the series. We played with heart and desire, and that's what you need to do in Australia."

Steven Smith, Player of the Series: "The pitch did a bit more with the new ball. Both quicks bowled really well up front from both teams, so probably a little bit different to the SCG. Hopefully a day off [tomorrow] and then come over here just before the [first T20I], that would be ideal."

Hardik Pandya is the Player of the Match. "It's fantastic. Been working really hard to make sure I play for my country, so I'm really happy to be playing this series. Natarajan is quite a story, quite an inspiration with the background he's come from. You need to be on your toes to compete against Australia. I feel that you always have that extra edge in you when you play against Australia, you want to face up to that challenge."

"I'm fine if Jadeja keeps that role," he adds, when Shane Warne asks him if he's taken away the Rockstar mantle. "I'm a father now."

Dhaval Shah: "Now that we have won this match, I would like to still point out a major setback we have in our batting line-up and batting approach. I feel we need players like Pant and Pandya to match the approach by teams like England and Australia. Pandya has proved today as well. But Pant is as important in the batting line-up. He should be developed and groomed and given a longer run."

Arun: "Can we just point out that just a little bit of life in the pitch made the game so more interesting"

Prasanna S: "Not to take any credit away from Australia but the win equation is = number of tosses won and team batting first. Had India won one of the tosses, it could have gone either way, they managed 300+ in all the games."

Prasad: "It's inaccurate and unfair to say Thakur did a Plunkett impression. Not being jingoistic or anything, but more than player be an exponent of something. Cross-seam bowlers should be thought of as a subset, much like the holding midfielder subset." -- Yup, yup. It was just a comment on how effectively he used the weapon.

10.28pm A dead rubber, but they're often really entertaining. Today's game had so much packed into it, and in the end, the most significant bit of the action was an outstanding sixth-wicket partnership between Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja, which hauled India past 300. There was just enough in this pitch to interest the bowlers, contrary to the ground's ODI history, and India made good use of it to put up their most convincing bowling display of the series. Shardul Thakur did his best Liam Plunkett impression with his cross-seam smarts, and Jasprit Bumrah bowled excellently and could have had a lot more wickets on another day. An encouraging debut for T Natarajan as well, despite getting carted around briefly by Glenn Maxwell.

Maxwell could, and possibly should, have won this game for Australia, but he made a significant contribution for the third successive innings, and he's put that horror IPL far, far behind him. I thought Agar and Zampa bowled really well for Australia too.

49.3
W
Bumrah to Zampa, OUT, big appeal for lbw, given. Zampa shuffles across and Bumrah bowls it full and straight. He misses the flick, and it looked pretty plumb, given especially how deep he was in his crease, but Zampa has reviewed anyway. No edge on it. Both feet inside the crease, and it's smashing into leg stump, so India have wrapped up a victory that will bring them quite a bit of comfort, after five successive ODI losses, and seven in a row across formats.

A Zampa lbw b Bumrah 4 (7b 0x4 0x6) SR: 57.14

49.2
0
Bumrah to Zampa, no run, slower ball, short and wide outside off. Digs into the pitch and turns like an offbreak. Swings too early into the pull, and then the ball turns and rolls down to Rahul

14 off 5. A six now could make this very interesting...

49.1
1
Bumrah to Hazlewood, 1 run, leg-stump yorker, almost. Very low full-toss, and he makes room and stabs it towards backward point

Nitin: "Two generations of Kookaburra bats batting together."

Bumrah round the wicket to Hazlewood.

END OF OVER:
49 | 6 Runs | AUS: 288/9 (15 runs required from 6 balls, RR: 5.87, RRR: 15.00)

  • Josh Hazlewood6 (6b)
  • Adam Zampa4 (5b)
  • Shardul Thakur10-1-51-3
  • T Natarajan10-1-70-2
48.6
1
Thakur to Hazlewood, 1 run, length ball outside off, slapped to deep point
48.5
1
Thakur to Zampa, 1 run, low full-toss on leg stump, knuckleball too. Zampa makes room, adjusts for the lack of pace, and jabs it past the bowler, down towards long-off
48.4
1
Thakur to Hazlewood, 1 run, shot. Full again, on leg stump, clears his front leg and swipes it down to long-on

Jigar Shah: "That Bumrah Smile was exactly same when Dhawan Dropped Finch and when he bowled maxwell. Shows a lot about temperament "

48.3
2
Thakur to Hazlewood, 2 runs, in the blockhole on off stump, makes room and drives to the left of Kohli at deep point

Stays over the wicket to Hazlewood.

48.2
1
Thakur to Zampa, 1 run, full outside off, carved to deep point

Australia 2nd innings Partnerships

WktRunsPlayers
1st25AJ FinchM Labuschagne
2nd31AJ FinchSPD Smith
3rd61AJ FinchMC Henriques
4th6AJ FinchC Green
5th35AT CareyC Green
6th52GJ MaxwellAT Carey
7th58GJ MaxwellAC Agar
8th10SA AbbottAC Agar
9th0A ZampaAC Agar
10th11JR HazlewoodA Zampa