NEW DELHI: Virat Kohli hit a 73-ball 68 before edging a Glenn Maxwell delivery into the hands of wicket-keeper Brad Haddin in the third one-day international at the PCA Stadium in Mohali on Saturday.
Scorecard
Kohli smashed 9 fours in his knock.
India lost their sixth wicket when Mitchell Johnson dismissed Ravindra Jadeja off a short-pitched delivery.
Kohli hit his fourth half-century in a row to take India out of trouble, but only slightly.
Kohli reached his 26th fifty off 54 balls.
Mitchell Johnson dismissed Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh off successive deliveries to reduce India to 76/4.
Raina (17) looked to pull a Johnson bouncer but got only an edge that flew to the slips where Shane Watson took the catch and on the next ball Yuvraj played a nothing shot to a pacy delivery and got an edge that was gleefully accepted by wicket-keeper Brad Haddin.
With this golden duck, Yuvraj’s poor record at his home ground continued.
India lost their second wicket when Shane Watson dismissed opener Rohit Sharma.
Sharma (11) looked to hook a short delivery but it got too big on him and he ended up edging it high in the air and Aaron Finch ran back from the slips to take the catch in front of fine leg.
Clint McKay gave Australia an early breakthrough when he had opener Shikhar Dhawan caught behind by Brad Haddin in the second over of the match.
Dhawan hit two fours in his 8-run knock before falling to McKay.
The breakthrough came after Australian captain George Bailey won the toss and chose to bowl.
After winning the toss, Bailey said that that this ground, like Jaipur, will be hard to defend.
After losing the toss again, Dhoni said they would have bowled first as well, but he feels that it will be good exposure to bowl second with five matches still remaining. He emphasised on the rule changes (five fielders inside the ring) and the T20 factor helping massive scores being chased down.
Both India and Australia have retained their playing XI.
The pitch at the PCA Stadium is not a belter as the one in Jaipur. The pitch curator Daljit Singh maintained that the game would see an even contest between bat and ball.
Teams:
India: MS Dhoni (Capt.), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Ishant Sharma.
Australia: George Bailey (Capt.), Aaron Finch, Phillip Hughes, Shane Watson, Glenn Maxwell,Adam Voges, Brad Haddin, James Faulkner, Mitchell Johnson, Clint McKay, Xavier Doherty.