India vs Australia: Pandya, Jadeja partnership powers India to 13 runs win in 3rd ODI

Jasprit Bumrah being congratulated by Virat Kohli after he removed Glenn Maxwell. Image: Twitter @ICC

Xtra Time Web Desk: An unbeaten 150 runs partnership for the sixth wicket between Hardik Pandya 92(76) and Ravindra Jadeja 66(50) set the platform for a 13 runs win over Australia in the 3rd and final ODI at Manuka Oval. India seemed destined to post a sub-par total when Josh Hazlewood continued his stranglehold over Virat Kohli (got him out on all three occasions in the ODI series) being reduced to 152/5 in 31.6 overs. But Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja took on the Aussie attack as they scored 110 runs from the last 10 overs. The final five overs yielded 76 runs. Pandya hit seven boundaries and one six in his 76 ball knock while Jadeja hit 5 fours and 3 sixes to take the total post 300 runs.

In contrast to the first two games of the series, Australia’s revamped batting line-up stumbled early against debutant seamer T Natarajan and Shardul Thakur who had been brought in as replacements for Mohammed Shami and Navdeep Saini. Natarajan struck the first blow, but it was Thakur’s success soon after that resonated loudest when he had Smith – who had plundered 62-ball centuries in each of the first two matches – caught down the leg side for seven, before he was able to even register a boundary.

Desperate to avoid a clean-sweep, India squandered a series of opportunities to remove Australia’s batting mainstay Aaron Finch who was missed twice on 22 (a simple slips catch and a possible run out), on 27 (to a tough caught and bowled) and a reviewed lbw shout on 35. But Finch’s fortune finally expired on 75 when he holed out to long-on, and after brief cameos from Moises Henriques (22 from 31 balls), Green (21 from 27) and Alex Carey (38 from 42), it was up to Glenn Maxwell – arguably in the best form of his career – to see the Aussies home.

It required a magical delivery from Jasprit Bumrah as he removed the dangerous looking Maxwell to set up the win for the visitors. Maxwell (59 from 38) fell to a laser like yorker only to see his stumps rattled. Thakur (3-51) and Natarajan (2-70) then mopped up the tail as India ended a five-match losing streak in ODI cricket that stretched back to the start of their New Zealand tour prior to the global pandemic taking hold earlier this year.

Hardik Pandya was adjudged the Man of the Match for his effort while Steve Smith was declared the Man of the Series.