A composed 74 from Matt Short and a maiden half-century by Cooper Connolly steered Australia to a two-wicket win over India on Thursday, sealing the three-match one-day series with a game to go.
After India made 264-9 at a sold-out Adelaide Oval on the back of Rohit
Sharma’s 73, the hosts reached their target with 22 balls remaining.
Short, who was twice dropped, led the charge before Connolly (61 not out) and Mitch Owen (36) finished the job.
Australia won a rain-affected opening game in Perth by seven wickets, with the dead-rubber clash in Sydney on Saturday.
“It’s awesome and rapt to have won the series,” said Australia skipper Mitch Marsh, who won the toss and sent India in.
“(Josh) Hazlewood was unbelievable, the whole bowling unit kept trying to pick up wickets and awesome batting. We’ll certainly enjoy the series win.”
The hosts made a tentative start to the chase with Marsh falling for 11 to Arshdeep Singh after swinging wildly.
Travis Head also departed softly, thick-edging Harshit Rana to Virat Kohli on 28.
Short was joined by Matt Renshaw and they got the scoreboard moving with quick singles, putting on 55.
But spin bamboozled Renshaw, bowled for 30 by Axar Patel, then Alex Carey, dismissed for nine by Washington Sundar attempting a sweep shot.
Short kept his focus, making a third ODI half-century, before departing to Rana, caught on the ropes as he tried to up the tempo.
Some power-hitting from Owen, who slammed two fours and three sixes, left them needing 50 from the last 10 overs, a target reached after some late jitters.
“I think we had just enough runs on the board… it’s never easy to defend those totals when you drop a couple of catches,” said India skipper Shubman Gill.
“There was a little bit in the wicket initially, but as the ball got older it got better to bat on.”
Earlier, quick Hazlewood opened with 13 dot balls, but it was Xavier Bartlett who got the breakthrough for Australia.
In the team for Nathan Ellis, he tempted Gill down the pitch only to chip an
easy catch to Marsh at mid-off.
That brought Kohli to the crease and after an eight-ball duck in Perth the 36-year-old was keen for runs.
But he lasted just four deliveries with Bartlett trapping him lbw to leave India reeling at 17-2.
It was the first time Kohli has been dismissed for consecutive ducks in his long ODI career.
Rohit weathered the storm, reaching a 59th half-century. Shreyas Iyer (61) ably played a supporting role until Mitchell Starc broke their 118-run partnership.
He removed Rohit in the first over of his second spell, with Hazlewood collecting a mis-timed pull shot in the deep.
Iyer fell three overs later to Adam Zampa, who also accounted for KL Rahul (11), Patel (44) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (8).
