Australia vs India 2018-19: India seal the ODI series to end their historic Australian tour on a high
The Indian cricket team has created history by winning the final ODI at the MCG, Melbourne. By defeating Australia in style, Virat Kohli and his men have clinched the ODI series 2-1 and thus completed their second series win on the long tour. This is India's first ever bilateral ODI series victory in Australia.
Kohli and Co have ended this tour on a high before heading to New Zealand. They couldn't have asked for a better start to the year, with the ICC World Cup in sight.
It could be said that the Indian team dominated the hosts in all the three formats. Australia were fortunate to draw the T20I series due to rain, or else it would have been a clean sweep for the visitors.
In Melbourne, India won the toss and elected to field first. They knew they could chase any target easily, and so were confident of putting the hosts in.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave the early breakthrough as usual and sent Alex Carey back. Yuzvendra Chahal was the pick of the bowlers and notched up a 6-wicket haul. He bowled with real guile which deceived the Kangaroos and caused their downfall.
The Indian openers started the chase steadily before Rohit Sharma knicked one to Shaun Marsh. Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan then laid a foundation but the latter played a loose shot to give away his wicket to Marcus Stoinis.
Kohli and Dhoni looked determined to take their side home, but Jhye Richarson had other plans and sent Kohli back to the pavilion. Kedar Jadhav then arrived in the middle to face the first ball of his tour. He stitched together a match-winning partnership with Dhoni and scored the winning runs in the final over.
Jadhav's valiant effort of 61 not out is especially commendable as it came under huge pressure.
MS Dhoni once again took the Indian team home, with his unbeaten 87-run knock. He won the 'Man of the Series' award too for his brilliant performance with the bat in all the three matches.
It was Dhoni's heroics that won India two matches on the trot and helped his team seal the series.
There has been a lot of speculation over his place in the side. But Dhoni has answered his critics in style, by winning two important matches for India. He took both the games deep till the last over, before taking his side over the line.
This a new generation of Indian cricket which wants to dominate the game all over the globe. As Kohli mentioned, they want to be the best travelling side and win series everywhere, and they could well be signalling the start of a new era.