India defeated Australia by seven wickets in the fifth ODI in Nagpur on Sunday to clinch the series 4-1 and reclaim the number one ODI ranking. India were helped by openers Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane, who registered their third consecutive century stand in ODIs. Centurion Rohit also became the fastest to complete 2,000 ODI runs in India.
India opener Rohit Sharma scored his 14th ODI century and sixth against Australia and steered India towards an easy victory in the 5th ODI in Nagpur. Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit gave India a brilliant by sharing a 124-run opening stand before Rahane was dismissed by Coulter-Nile for 61. Virat Kohli has since provided able support to Rohit. The scoring rate is far better than the asking rate. This is after bowlers did a great job to restrict Australia to 242/9 in 50 overs in the 5th ODI in Nagpur. Marcus Stoinis and Travis Head shared a 87-run stand for the fifth wicket to take Australia past 200-run mark. But, Head was bowled but Axar Patel. This once again pushed Australia back. For India, Axar picked up three wickets while Jasprit Bumrah took two wickets. Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kedar Jadhav picked up a wicket each.
Well there you have it. India have won the game, won the series, and in doing so returned to the top of the ODI rankings to add to their top-spot in the Test arena. A very professional display with both bat and ball today in Nagpur, and indeed throughout the series has meant they have triumphed in the series by 4-1.
While Australia have shown glimpses of what they can do, especially in the 4th ODI, they will be disapointed in the manner of defeat today, and will be looking to correct that in the 3 match T20 series to follow.
It feels very good to win so convicingly. We ticked all the boxes this series and we are very proud of the way we went about it. The management has played a massive part in motivating the players for games like today. Bumrah and Kumar have been a class apart with the ball for us and that has been the difference for us. I’m very happy as captain, especially with Pandya who has been outstanding and deserves his player of the series trophy. Virat Kohli,