Australia versus India 3rd ODI: India record first ever bilateral ODI series win thanks to 7 wicket win at Melbourne 

India created history by winning their first ever ODI bilateral series win in Australia, beating the hosts by seven wickets in the deciding match played at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday. Coming fresh off a win in the second ODI, the Indian team bowled out Australia for 230 runs, after winning the toss and deciding to bowl. In response to the total, MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav played a crucial role to guide India a historic series win.

Indian captain Virat Kohli won the toss and decided to bowl first. It turned out to be a great decision as Bhuvneshwar Kumar got the early breakthrough, dismissing Alex Carey for five runs. Indian new ball bowlers, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami, troubled the Australian batsmen. Bhuvneshwar dismissed Aaron Finch for the third time in the series for 14 runs. At the end of 10 overs, Australia scored 30 for 2.

Shaun Marsh and Usman Khawaja steadied the Australian innings again, taking singles and hitting the bad balls away for boundaries. Yuzvendra Chahal ended the 73-run stand for the third wicket, by stumping Marsh for 39 runs. In the same over, Chahal also scalped the wicket of Khawaja for 34 runs, to put Australia under pressure. The leg spinner then dismissed Marcus Stoinis to rattle the Australian innings. Glenn Maxwell and Peter Handscomb added 38 runs for the sixth wicket before Shami dismissed Maxwell for 26.

Handscomb looked in good touch, taking singles and hitting boundaries. He then partnered with Jhye Richardson to add 45 runs for the seventh wicket and reached his half-century off 57 balls. India bowled out Australia out in 48.4 overs, and clearly, Chahal was the pick of bowlers with 6 for 42.

Chasing the target of 231 runs to win, India lost Rohit Sharma's wicket early on, when he was dismissed for nine runs. Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan then struggled to time the ball, looking quite uneasy and at the end of 10 overs, India had managed to score 26 for 1.

After the power play, Dhawan and Kohli picked up the slack and played some good strokes before the former's innings came to an end. Dhawan was dismissed by Marcus Stoinis for 23 runs, but the second wicket partnership saw 44 runs being added to the chase.

The experienced pair of Kohli and MS Dhoni worked on steadying the Indian innings with some lovely strokes and were aided in their chase with some lucky escapes with dropped catches and close run out attempts.

Kohli, however, was soon dismissed by Jhye Richardson for 46, but having added 54 runs for the third wicket with Dhoni. Cool and calm, Dhoni managed to reach his third successive half-century in this series off 74 balls, an innings that gained him the man of the series title.

While Dhoni worked on the chase, he was amply supported by Kedar Jadhav, who also reached his half-century off 52 balls. The duo manages to add an unbeaten 121 runs, helping India win the match by seven wickets, with four balls to spare.

Chahal, for his six-wicket haul for 42 runs, was named man of the match.

Brief scores: India 234 for 3 in 49.2 overs ( MS Dhoni 87*, Kedar Jadhav 61, Jhye Richardson 1/27) beat Australia 230 in 48.4 overs ( Peter Handscomb 58, Shaun Marsh 39, Yuzvendra Chahal 6/42, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2/28) by 7 wickets.