Bangalore: India defeated Australia by 57runs in the last game to clinch the seven match ODI series by 4-3 here Saturday despite brilliant late resistance by Faulkner who scored a century. Rohit Sharma was declared man of the match and man of the series.
Australia were right under the pressure after they were set to chase a mammoth target of 383, the highest of the series that saw five matches going beyond 300.
For Australia Faulkner was the top scorer with 116 that included 11 fours and 6 sixes. , followed by Maxwell ( 60) Watson (49, 22 bls, 2X4,6X6) and Haddin( 40,49bls, 7X4).
Australia lost their first wicket of Finch when the score was just 7. haddin and Hughes took the score to 64 but Ashwin had Hughes caught by Yuvraj.
This followed by two quick wicket fo captain Bailey (4) who batted superbly through out the series and Voges(4). By this time Australia were down on the mate and it was just a matter of time when Indian fans celebrate the victory as asking rate kept climbing but late resistance by Faulkner made it a nail biting finish.
Maxwell, Faulkner and wtson tried to put up some fight but it was too late and too difficult for visitors to come back in to the game.
For India Shami and jadeja took three wickets each and Ashwin accounted for two wickets. Vinay kumar was the most expensive bowler giving away 102 runs for one wicket in his nine overs.
Earlier opener Rohit Sharma, not known for big hittings, probably played an inning of his life when he smashed double tone to guide India to a very solid position in a must win match. Rohit now has become the third India batsmen after Sachin and Sehwag to score a double in ODI. His heroics incuded 16 sixes that surpassed the record of Dhoni who had hit 14 sixes in a match before that.
India will now play two test series with West Indies, starting from November 6 in Kolkata followed by second test at Wankhede where Sachin Tendulkar will play his last 200th test.
