All-round India cruises to series wins

India 294 for 5 (Pandya 78, Rohit 71, Rahane 70, Cummins 2-54) beat Australia 293 for 6 (Finch 124, Smith 63, Bumrah 2-52) by five wickets

Indore: With an unassailable 3-0 lead in the ongoing five ODIs versus Australia, Virat Kohli‘s India have toppled South Africa to become the No. 1 ranked side in the format.

After an emphatic 50-run win in the second ODI, India were tied with South Africa at 119 points, but missed out on the top spot due to 0.09 decimal points.

Nonetheless, with a 5-wicket victory over Australia at Holkar Stadium, Indore, they have completed the formalities and dethroned Proteas.

For India, Rohit Sharma scored 71 runs and Ajinkya Rahane 70 runs to provide the launchpad for the chase and the eventual win.

Pandya was promoted higher up the order to come up at No 4 and he barely looked phazed by the change in batting order as he went from over to over, doing what he does best – hit boundaries and make things difficult for the opposition bowlers.

But even before he came out to bat, Rahane and Rohit had provided India the required start at the top of the order with a 139 run partnership. But two wickets in two quick periods had India nervous at 206/4 in the 36th over with fall of Virat Kohli and Kedar Jadhav within five balls.

However, Pandya and Manish Pandey stayed firm to keep going at the target and put together 78 runs for the fifth wicket.

Pandya failed to take India over the finishing line as he fell to Pat Cummins while trying to clear the mid-on fielder.

Earlier, Aaron Finch scored a lightning 124 runs from 125 balls with 12 boundaries and five sixes to his name.

And found able support from Steve Smith at the other end who scored 63 runs from 71 balls. They put together 154 runs for the second wicket before Finch fell to Kuldeep Yadav.

The middle order faltered for Australia with only Marcus Stoinis reaching double figures while Glenn Maxwell, Travis Head, Peter Handscomb and Ashton Agar scored a collective 21 runs.

The fourth ODI will be played in Bangalore on Thursday.