Captain Virat Kohli and the team management made the right calls for the decider and reaped the rewards at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). India made three changes to the team and all of them (Yuzvendra Chahal, Kedar Jadhav and Vijay Shankar) contributed to the win
Melbourne: India grabbed another slice of history after they defeated Australia by seven wickets in the third and final ODI at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Friday.
Virat Kohli and his men had won their first-ever Test series (2-1) Down Under earlier this month and now they added the ODI silverware with a similar scoreline.
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India successfully chased down 231 thanks to half centuries from MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav. Earlier, Yuzvendra Chahal had taken his career-best 6/42 to keep the hosts to 230 all out.
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Here are the five turning points of the match
Captain Virat Kohli and the team management made the right calls for the decider and reaped the rewards. They brought back Yuzvendra Chahal and Kedar Jadhav in place of Kuldeep Yadav and Ambati Rayudu. Both Chahal and Jadhav contributed handsomely in the victory. Another change was bringing in Vijay Shankar for Mohammed Siraj.
Chahal, who was ignored for the first two ODIs in Sydney and Adelaide, returned with a bang. His introduction in the 24th over of the Australian innings turned the match in India's favour. He took two wickets in his first over, dismissing both left-handers Shaun Marsh and Usman Khawaja. The duo was looking good but Chahal sent them back to the pavilion in the space of four balls. He added four more wickets for a career-best 6/42.
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With the debate of India's No 4 position still going on, Dhoni was promoted on Friday and he proved his worth with an unbeaten 87. After the first ODI, vice-captain Rohit Sharma had said that he wanted Dhoni at No 4 and his wish came true. This was third consecutive fifty (51, 55 not out, 87 not out) and Dhoni won the Man-of-the-series award.
Bhuvneshwar put the lid on Australia's scoring in the initial overs and dismissed both the openers - Alex Carey and skipper Aaron Finch. The right-arm paceman got the wicket of Finch for the third time in a row in the series. He finished the match with excellent figures of 2/28 in eight overs.
All-rounder Shankar got a chance to make his ODI debut in Melbourne. He was the replacement flown in from India after Hardik Pandya was suspended and sent home for his sexist and misogynistic comments on a TV show. Shankar grabbed his opportunity, going for less than four runs per over in his six-over spell (0/23).
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