Rana, Rohit and Kohli deny Australia a series sweep

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli enjoyed a historic evening at the SCG as they denied Australia a series sweep on Saturday (October 25). Rohit scored his 50th international century while Kohli went past Sangakkara's tally to become the second highest run-getter in ODI cricket. They added their first century stand since January 2020 (any format) and avoided the ignominy of a 3-0 series defeat. This ODI batting clinic came after Harshit Rana's four-wicket haul headlined a strong bowling performance that restricted Australia to a sub-par total. Matthew Renshaw got his maiden ODI fifty but batters around him were found wanting as India bundled out the hosts for 237. Only for the second time in 27 ODIs as captain, Mitchell Marsh chose to bat first. The last time he did it, Australia posted 431/2 against South Africa last August. Marsh and Travis Head took on the trio of Rana, Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna - playing in place of Arshdeep Singh, in the PowerPlay to roll out the carpet for another big batting effort. In the 10th over however, Siraj stopped Head in his tracks, shortly after he got to 3000 ODI runs. The left-hander attempted to cut a ball outside the off-stump but hit straight to Krishna at backward point. The scoring rate dipped a bit from here but Marsh attempted to throw Kuldeep Yadav off his lengths with two boundaries. But right after the drinks break, Axar Patel got one ball from round the stumps to go with the angle and hit the stumps to send the Aussie skipper packing for 41. Matt Renshaw and Matthew Short kickstarted the next big alliance. Washington Sundar and Axar tied the two batters down in a tight spell of spin bowling, which led Short to attempt a breakaway shot. He reached for a ball on the off-stump and tried to sweep it away but hit towards Kohli, who reacted quickly and got behind the ball to take the catch. Renshaw and Alex Carey got together next, and the scoring rate went down further. Kuldeep nearly ended Carey's stay on eight when the keeper-batter decided to break the shackles by going after the spinner. He mistimed a big shot and hit straight to Krishna at long-on, only for the pacer to spill a simple catch.