The China Mail - Rohit and Kohli turn back clock as India crush Australia in 3rd ODI

Chasing a modest 237 to win, the visitors reached their target easily with 69 balls to spare at a sold-out Sydney Cricket Ground.

Rohit top-scored with an unbeaten 121, but the biggest roar was for Kohli, who made ducks in the first two games won by Australia at Adelaide and Perth which clinched them the series.

This time he was back to his best with a fluent 74 not out.

Like Rohit, he has retired from Test and T20 duties and with no more ODI series scheduled Down Under before the 2027 World Cup it was almost certainly their final innings on Australian soil.

"I don't know if we'll be coming back to Australia, but it was fun all these years that we played here," said the 38-year-old Rohit.

"You know, a lot of good memories, bad memories. But all in all, I'll take the cricket that I played here."

India made a confident start to the chase after Mitchell Marsh won the toss and batted first only for Australia to be bowled out for 236.

Rohit and Shubman Gill put on 69 before Josh Hazlewood enticed a faint edge from the Indian captain.

That brought the 36-year-old Kohli to the crease and he and Rohit set about knocking off the runs quickly.

Rohit was almost flawless in reaching a 33rd ODI ton, with 13 fours and three sixes in his 121, while Kohli brought up a 75th half-century to steer them home.

"Going out there and having a situation is always something that brings the best out of me and when Rohit is batting it's pretty easy to kind of rotate the strike, we know each other's game pretty well," said Kohli.

"We want to say thank you, we've loved coming to this country," he added. "We've played some of our best cricket here so thank you very much."

Earlier, Australia were ticking along nicely at 183-3 but lost their last seven wickets for just 53.

Harshit Rana did the damage with 4-39 while Matt Renshaw top-scored with 56.

Marsh and Travis Head made a watchful start but once they got their eye in the runs started flowing.

Head looked dangerous, hitting six fours in reaching 29 off 25 balls, passing 3,000 one-day runs en route. But he failed to control a cut shot off Mohammed Siraj and was caught at backward point.

Marsh was bowled for 41, confounded by the spin of Axar Patel, and when Matt Short (30) fell to Washington Sundar Australia were 124-3 after 23 overs.

Shreyas Iyer pulled off a sensational backpeddling catch to remove Alex Carey (24) and it sparked a collapse.

Renshaw reached a maiden ODI half-century, but with the runs drying up he charged at Sundar and was trapped lbw, before Mitchell Owen departed for one and Mitchell Starc for two leaving Australia in trouble at 201-7.

Cooper Connolly made a late 23 but the tail failed to wag.

C.Fong--ThChM