Rajkot: Hosts India faced a 66 run defeat from the hands of Australia in the third and final ODI of the bilateral series containing three ODIs. Securing win in the first two ODIs, the men in blue have already secured the series. Score: Australia: 352/7, India: 286/10 (49.4 overs).

Australia decided to bat first after winning the toss. The openers gave the team a blistering start before David Warner departed after scoring 56 runs off 34 deliveries with 6 boundaries and four maximums. For Australia, all top four batters scored half centuries helping the guests set up a massive total of 352/7.

Opener Mitchell Marsh top scored the innings with 96 off 84 deliveries but he missed a ton just for four runs. He smashed three maximums and 13 classy boundaries before he was dismissed by Kuldeep Yadav.

Steve Smith (74 off 61 deliveries, 6x1, 4x8), and Marnus Labuschagne (72 off 58 deliveries, 4x9) also played crucial innings and added to the total.

Chasing a target of 353 at 7 runs per over, India gave opportunity to Washington Sundar as opener. Though Sundar could not stay long, Captain Rohit Sharma was in a blazing form as he was smashing maximums at his wills.

Indian captain scored a brisky 81 off just 58 deliveries before he was caught and bowled by Glen Maxwell. Six maximums adorned his classy innings. Virat Kohli scored another fifty but he could not stand long. He was dismissed at 56 by another Maxwell delivery.

Shreyas Iyyer (48), Ravindra Jadeja (35), and KL Rahul (26) also contributed their parts but they were not enough to take India home. Last match hero Suryakumar Yadav too started with a boundary but was sent back to pavilion soon by Hazlewood.

Glenn Maxwell was declared as the player of the match while India’s young star Shubhman Gill was awarded the Player of the Series award for his outstanding knocks in the first two matches. He remained the top of batters with 178 runs from two innings.

BCCI has given rest to Gill in the third ODI as the seniors returned from their rest in the third ODI. However, Gill lost a golden opportunity to surpass Babar Azam who adorns the top spot of ODI batters list of ICC. Gill was short of just 22 runs to surpass Babar Azam.

Gill stands second with 847 ratings with just 10 ratings short of the topper Babam. With the series win, Team India now adorns the top spot of men’s cricket in all formats.