Rohit century lifts India back to No. 1

Rohit Sharma scores 14th ODI hundred and first in the series.

India 243 for 3 (Rohit 125, Rahane 61, Zampa 2-59) beat Australia 242 for 9 (Warner 53, Stoinis 46, Patel 3-38, Bumrah 2-51) by seven wickets

Nagpur: The hosts made light work of a target 243 to complete a 4-1 thumping of world champion Australia in their fifth and final One Day International (ODI) here on Sunday.

India, riding on Rohit Sharma‘s 14th hundred, made a mockery of a 243-run chase.

India also reclaim the No. 1 spot in ICC ODI rankings. They attained the coveted position after the Indore win, but were pushed to No. 2 after Bengaluru encounter.

In pursuit of 243, Indian openers Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit laid the foundation with another sublime 100-run stand. This is their third consecutive 100-run partnership. Rohit took 15 balls to get off the mark, but did it in style. A lovely off drive to Pat Cummins eased him out the middle.

Rahane, on the other hand, looked at his fluent best. He leaned onto the front-foot to slightly pitched up deliveries, and flicked to anything offered on the pads.

However, Rohit and Rahane were troubled by Adam Zampa for a brief period. With the slowness of the track, the leg spinner troubled the Indian duo and found the edge on few occasions.

Nonetheless, luck favoured hosts and the Indian pair mustered runs at will. Rohit slammed the first six of the Indian innings in the 18th over, off Travis Head. Steven Smith rotated his bowlers, but found no answer to Rohit-Rahane.

Rohit was the first to get to fifty. Rahane also scored his fourth consecutive half-century, but missed out on a hundred being dismissed for 61. He tried to work the ball around leg side, missed the length due to the drop in pace and was adjudged lbw for 61.

Earlier, India restricted Australia to 242 runs for nine wickets.

After Australian skipper Steve Smith won the toss and elected to bat, openers David Warner (53) and Aaron Finch (32) laid a solid foundation of 66 runs but the following top-order batsmen failed to sustain the momentum.

However, Travis Head (42) and Marcus Stoinis (46) put up an 87-run fifth-wicket stand to haul Australia to a respectable total.

For India, left-arm spinner Axar Patel was impressive, claiming three wickets for 38 runs in 10 overs. Jasprit Bumrah recover from opening spell picked up two wickets.