Images from the 3rd One-Day International played between India and Australia in Indore on Sunday
India beat Australia by five wickets to win the third ODI to take a series-clinching 3-0 lead, in Indore on Sunday.
Chasing 294 for victory on a batting pitch, Hardik Pandya (78 off 72) and Manish Pandey (36 off 32) took India to the finish line with 13 balls to spare, after Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane had laid the platform for the win with a 139-run opening stand.
With this win, India now rise to No 1 in the ICC ODI rankings.
Earlier, India’s bowlers did well to peg back the Aussies after Aaron Finch (124) and David Warner gave the visitors a good start, before Steve Smith joined forces with centurion Finch to up the scoring rate.
India's spinners once again put a stranglehold over the Australian batsmen after the visitor's had another middle-order collapse.
What could have easily been a 350 score turned out to be much less after the Aussies failed to make the most of the platform set by Finch and Smith.
Aaron Finch's fluent century came to a nought due to self-destructive batting by Australia in the last 10 overs.
Finch, playing his first game of the series, had placed Australia at a commanding 232 for two in 40 overs with his 124-run innings but they lost plot after that.
India faced a few anxious moments in their run chase after losing the set openers along with captain Virat Kohli (28) and Kedar Jadhav (2) but Pandya, who had played crucial role in India's win in the series-opener in Chennai, ensured there were no more hiccups.
He kept Australia under pressure with his confident batting as he not only rotated the strike comfortably but also smacked four sixes off Ashton Agar to keep the run-rate under control. Pandya found a good partner in Manish Pandey (36) as they went about their business calmly and shared a 78-run stand for the fifth wicket.
The win meant that India have maintained their unbeaten run in Indore and have now recorded sixth consecutive ODI series win since June 2016.
India, already number one in the Test format, replaced South Africa at the top of ODI ranking table by taking their tally to 120 points, one more than the Proteas.
Rohit subdued Australia with his punishing knock on a flat track, which had nothing for the bowlers. His knock was studded with six fours and four sixes.
Hitting sixes was no big deal for Rohit, who smashed the Australian pace trio of Pat Cummins, Nathan Coulter-Nile and Kane Richardson with equal ease.
He raised his fifty with a six off left-arm spinner Agar. Rahane kept rotating strike and also hit Marcus Stoinis for three boundaries in a single over.
Rohit was dropped on 67 by stumper Peter Handscomb off Cummins but could not make full use of the chance and soon miscued one from Coulter-Nile to be caught by Hilton Cartwright at deep mid-wicket.
Cummins ended Rahane's innings by trapping him LBW to bring two new batsmen -- skipper Kohli and Pandya -- on the crease.
India were cruising at that stage but quick dismissals of Kohli and Jadhav infused some life into the match.
Earlier, Australian opener Aaron Finch, playing his first game of the series, struck a fluent century before India bounced back in the last 10 overs to restrict the tourists to 293 for six.
Finch, who replaced young Hilton Cartright after recovering from a calf injury, made an instant impact with a classy 124 after skipper Steve Smith won the toss for the first time in the series and elected to bat.
Trailing 0-2 in the five-match series, the Australians desperately needed a top-order batsman to produce such a knock.
Exploiting a flat Holkar track, Finch added 70 runs for the opening wicket with David Warner (42) and raised a 154-run partnership with Smith for the second wicket.
Smith (63 off 71) happily played second-fiddle during his partnership with Finch, whose footwork was impeccable. He rendered the stock balls of both the wrist spinners ineffective, hitting four of his five sixes off 'googlies'.
Finch, whose knock came off 125 balls, decorated his eighth ODI century with 17 boundaries including five sixes.
A docile pitch to deal with, Indian bowlers hardly troubled the Australians as Kuldeep Yadav (2/75) and Yuzvendra Chahal (1/54) largely remained ineffective.
Finch's dominance against Kuldeep was clear from the fact that he collected 41 runs off the 26 balls he faced from the Chinaman bowler.
However, the hosts staged a remarkable comeback in the last 10 overs of the game after the fall of Finch, giving away just 59 runs and taking four wickets.
It all started in the last ball of the 38th over when Finch lofted Kuldeep to Kedar Jadhav at deep-midwicket.
The stage was set for Australia to go for the kill, at 234 for two in 40 overs, but they lost Smith and Glenn Maxwell (5) in successive balls.
Kuldeep saw the back of Smith, caught at long-off, while Chahal had Maxwell stumped.
Bumrah got rid of Travis Head (4) and Peter Handscomb (3), leaving Australia in tatters. They could never get the fillip, which was there to take after a stupendous start even as Marcus Stoinis took the side close to 300 with his unbeaten 27.
Earlier, a cautious approach by both Warner and Finch provided Australia their best start of the series.
There was hardly any help for the bowlers but both Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Bumrah remained disciplined.
The visitors scored 49 runs in the first 10 overs with Warner finding three boundaries off Bhuvneshwar and Finch hitting the same number of fours off Bumrah in this period.
Captain Virat Kohli replaced them with Chahal and Hardik Pandya. Warner, who had got his eye in, hit the first six of the innings as he lofted Chahal flat and hard over long-on.
Pandya provided India their first breakthrough by dismissing Warner, who did not move his feet while trying to punch it away and was bowled.
