In the third and final ODI match of the Australia tour of India 2023, Australia defeated India by 21 runs at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
The Aussie captain, Steve Smith won the toss and opted to bat first. It was a fine decision as the visitors got to a wonderful start in the powerplay with both the openers, Travis Head (33) and Mitchell Marsh (47) continuing their rich form in the final match as well. Both the batters scored 68 runs for the first wicket partnership before Head lost his wicket just after the powerplay. Post this partnership, other Australian batters just had decent to good outings as no one really impressed much with the bat. While Alex Carey (38) scored the most in the middle overs, Marnus Labuschagne (28) also added a few runs with him. David Warner (23), while playing at number four, also played a handy knock along with Marcus Stoinis (25) and Sean Abbott (26) which helped the five-time World Cup winners reach a decent total of 269 in 49 overs.
For India with the ball, three wickets each were taken by Kuldeep Yadav and Hardik Pandya. Along with them, Mohammad Siraj and Axar Patel also picked two wickets each.
While chasing, even team India got to a fantastic start courtesy of captain Rohit Sharma (30) and Shubman Gill (37). Following such an amazing opening outing, Virat Kohli (54) took the innings forward with a brilliant half-century to his name. Even KL Rahul (32) did his best in the middle overs. Even with such scores for each batter, it got difficult for the home side as the team was losing wickets at regular intervals. Suryakumar Yadav also registered an unwanted record of being the first batter to get a golden duck all throughout the series. India, in the end, got bundled for just 248 runs in 49.1 overs.
It was leggies day at the office as Adam Zampa, while defending the score, also picked four wickets. Two wickets were also scalped by Aston Agar while one each was picked by Marcus Stoinis and Sean Abbott.
Adam Zampa was adjudged Man of the Match for his amazing bowling performance. Following this victory, the visitors have bagged the ODI series by 2-1.
Scorecard:
Australia: 269/10, Overs 49, Mitchell Marsh 47, Kuldeep Yadav 3/56
India: 248/10, Overs 49.1, Virat Kohli 54, Adam Zampa 4/45