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Kohli, Dhawan put Watson, Bailey's tons in the shade
Virat Kohli's unbeaten 115 and Shikhar Dhawan's equally blistering century (100) helped India register a series-leveling six-wicket win over Australia in the sixth and penultimate ODI of the seven-match series in Nagpur on Wednesday.
It was Kohli's 11th ton batting second and India have never lost a match.
Chasing a mammoth 351, the Indians gave ample display of their batting firepower on a belter of a track at the VCA Stadium at Jamtha to overhaul the target with three balls to spare.
Earlier, Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to field. India made two changes in their playing eleven, bringing in leg-spinner Amit Mishra and Bhuvneshwar Kumar in place of Jaydev Unadkat and R Vinay Kumar.
Australia, on the other hand, have retained the same team that played in the last game.
Teams:
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Amit Mishra, Mohammed Shami.
Australia: George Bailey (captain), Aaron Finch, Philip Hughes, Shane Watson, Adam Voges, Glenn Maxwell, Brad Haddin, James Faulkner, Mitchell Johnson, Clint McKay, Xavier Doherty.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was impessive early on
The home team started off well by sending back openers Phil Hughes (13) and Aaron Finch (20) before the visitor's score had crossed 50.
In his fourth over, the seventh of the innings, the very impressive Bhuvneshwar Kumar had Hughes caught by Kohli at square leg.
R Ashwin got through Finch's defenses with his first ball.
India had the visitors under check in the first 20 overs by restricting Australia to 83 for two.
Watson notched up his ninth ODI hundred
Shane Watson then got into the act scoring his ninth ODI hundred, in 170 games.
The 32-year-old Watson was all power, hitting 13 fours and three sixes in making 102 off 94 balls.
It was Watson's maiden hundred against India. He reached his hundred in great style by hitting the expensive Shami for three successive fours before the bowler got his revenge off the fourth by clean bowling him through the gate.
Bailey, Watson added a record 168 runs for the third wicket
Watson along with his captain, George Bailey, laid the foundation of the Australian innings with a solid third wicket partnership.
With Australia pushed into the back foot early on, the duo launched a superb counter-attack, compiling the second-highest third wicket stand of 168 in ODIs against India to help the visitors record their fourth 300-plus total in the series.
The 168-run partnership, that came off just 142 balls, was only the second-highest after Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn's unfinished 234 in the 2003 World Cup final at Johannesburg and the eighth 150-plus stand for all wickets against India.
The duo tore apart the clueless Indian bowling attack that fielded three front line spinners for the first time.
Bailey scored a career-best 156
Bailey, the in-form batsman, led from the front smashing a scintillating century.
The Australian captain was impressive in scoring a career-best 156, his second ODI ton, in 115 balls. His innings contained half a dozen sixes and 13 fours.
Bailey, who has been the team's most consistent batsman in the series, once again dominated the home team attack to notch up his fourth 50-plus score in five innings. He now aggregates 474 runs in five matches in the series and is a definite contender for the man-of-the-series honours.
After the dismissal of Watson and Glen Maxwell (9), Adam Voges (44 not out) helped his captain add another 120 runs in only 80 balls for the fifth wicket to complete India's misery on a good batting track.
Jadeja took his 100th ODI wicket
Ravindra Jadeja was handed task of bowling the last over of the Australian innings.
He grabbed two wickets in the over, first having Bailey caught by Kohli at long-off in the second ball and then having Mitchell Johnson caught by Dhawan.
The latter happened to be his 100th ODI wicket.
In fact, Jadeja seemed to have Adam Voges caught off his own bowling, immediately after taking Bailey's wicket. But that happened to be a no ball.
Rohit, Shikhar added 178 runs for the first wicket
Chasing a mammoth 351, Rohit Sharma (79) and Shikhar Dhawan (100) started cautiously before taking the attack to the opposition.
The duo added 178 runs (in just 29.3 overs) for the opening wicket.
Rohit completed his 19th ODI fifty before being caught by Faulkner off Finch.
Dhawan faced 102 balls and hit 11 boundaries in what was his fourth ODI hundred, in just his 24th match.
Kohli's 115 was third fastest ODI hundred by an Indian
Thereafter, Kohli took over.
His was third fastest ODI hundred by an Indian from just 61 balls, just days after hitting the fastest - off 52 balls in Jaipur.
Kohli's unbeaten knock came from just 66 balls with the help of 18 fours and a six.
Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (25 not out) hit the winning runs even as he helped Kohli add 61 runs (off 40 balls) for the fifth wicket, a partnership that took India home.
With the series locked 2-2, the seventh ODI in Bangalore on Saturday will serve as the summit showdown and the winner takes all.