Bengaluru: India prevailed in a high-scoring thiller against Australia by 57 runs at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday to clinch the seven-match one-day series 3-2. Two matches failed to produce results as they were abandoned due to rain.
A brilliant effort of 209 by opener Rohit Sharma threw the gauntlet of a 384-run target before Australia, who almost made a match of it. Spearheaded by a fiery century by No.7 James Faulkner (116 off 73 deliveries) and Glenn Maxwell (60 off 22 balls), Australia had reached 326 for eight at one stage.
However, Ravinder Jadeja and Mohammad Shami struck successive blows to leave the visitors stranded at 326 off 45.1 overs.
Sharma struck his double century off 158 balls and it was studded with 12 fours and 16 sixes. It was a record for most sixes in an innings.
Tendulkar was the first cricketer to touch the 200 landmark when he hit 200 not out against South Africa in Gwalior, February 2010. In December 2011, Sehwag scored 219 against the West Indies in Indore becoming the highest individual scorer in ODI cricket.
Rohit Sharma has been in and out of the Indian team but his fortunes have turned around dramatically since he has started opening. Along with Shikhar Dhawan, the Mumbai right-hander has cemented the opening slot in ODIs. Sharma has scored 589 runs in his last 10 innings, averaging 84.14.
Before the start of this match, he had scored 2,840 runs in 107 matches at an average of 34.63. The 26-year-old is yet to make his Test debut.
Cracker of a contest
Unmindful of hot and humid conditions, thousand of frenzied fans flocked to the stadium on a sunny afternoon yesterday to watch a cracker of contest between the top two teams in the ICC rankings.
Being played on the weekend and on a festival day, the decider game lured a capacity crowd of over 30,000 to fill the stands in the first hour of the game despite travails of frisking and stringent security measures.
When word went out that India would bat first though Dhoni lost toss, there was a scramble at all the 20 gates to enter the stadium from the serpentine queues that were a mile long.
“As we were eager to watch our openers (Sharma and Dhawan) bat from start, we came to the venue very early and were in hurry to get into the stadium before the first ball was bowled because the duo have been in great form during this series,” Ganpati Subramanian, an avid fan of the Indian team, told IANS here in the eastern stands.
The fickle Bengaluru weather was at it when the skies opened up and the gathering clouds gave way to a sudden downpour 70 minutes into the game when Sharma and Dhawan were at crease and India was at 107 for no loss in 17 overs.
With a blazing sun playing hide-and-seek with darkening clouds, the unpredictable rain stopped play for 25 minutes, forcing players to run for cover while grounds men ran into the middle to protect the pitch from rain gods.
Though 25 minutes of the game was lost, umpires Nigel Llong and S. Ravi declared that India would play its full quota of 50 overs.
