Bengaluru ODI: India romp home by 7 wickets; clinch series 2-1

Chasing 287 to win, India overhauled the target with 15 balls to spare

rohit-sharma-century-pti Rohit Sharma celebrates his century during the third and final ODI match against Australia, at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru | PTI

A brilliant century from Rohit Sharma and a solid 89 from skipper Virat Kohli helped India beat Australia by seven wickets in the third and final ODI, at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru.

Chasing 287 to win, India overhauled the target with 15 balls to spare, with opener Sharma leading from the front with 119—his 29th ODI ton.

Sharma also became the third fastest to 9,000 ODI runs while Kohli became the fastest batsman to score 5,000 runs as skipper.

Shreyas Iyer, who scored an unbeaten 44, completed the win in company of Manish Pandey (8*).

Earlier, a flurry of wickets towards the end left Australia stranded on 286/9 in 50 overs—a good 20-30 runs short which looked possible when Steve Smith was batting.

Mohammed Shami was the wrecker-in-chief, taking 4/63 in his 10 overs, with three of those wickets coming in his last two overs, thus derailing the momentum for the Aussies. It included the prized scalp of Smith (131), who brought up his ninth ODI ton.

He and Marnus Labuschagne (54) shared a 127-run partnership for the third wicket, to raise hopes of a strong finish. And though Alex Carey gave company to Smith with a well-made 35, the Indian bowlers, led by Shami, managed to pull things back in the end.

All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, too, was instrumental in keeping things tight, giving away just 44 runs in his 10 overs and taking two wickets as well.

India had lost the series-opener in Mumbai before levelling the series in Rajkot.