Pacer Vinay Kumar provided India an important breakthrough when he dismissed dangerous Glenn Maxwell (60) in the 23rd over to reduce the visitors to 138/6 in 22.2 overs.
Maxwell was in his aggressive best as he smashed seven sixes and three fours in his whirlwind 22-ball knock. In the process, Maxwell equaled the record of fastest fifty by an Australian in 18 balls.
Maxwell also added valuable 58 runs for the fifth wicket with Adam Voges.
Voges (4) became the second victim of pacer Mohd Shami, who clean bowled the batsman in the 22nd over.
Spinner Ravichandran Ashwin clean bowled Brad Haddin (40) to reduce Australia to 74/4 in 16.5 overs. Haddin, who hit seven fours, was leading the visitors' fightback before he missed the Ashwin delivery.
But the biggest blow for Aussies came in the previous over (16th) when they lost their big hitting in-form skipper George Bailey (4). Bailey was run out after a mixed-up with Haddin.
Chasing a massive 384-run target, Australia lost Phillip Hughes (23) and Aaron Finch (5) early against India.
Ashwin dismissed Hughes in the thirteenth over to reduce Australia to 64/2 in 12.1 overs, after the southpaw added 57 runs with Haddin to lead the visitors' fightback.
Pacer Mohd Shami gave the hosts early breakthrough, when he got rid of Finch in the second over.
Earlier, Rohit Sharma blasted his way into the record books with a breathtaking 209 that included a record 16 sixes which propelled India to a mammoth 383 for six.
The immensely talented Sharma thus became only third batsman in the history of ODI cricket after Virender Sehwag (219) and Sachin Tendulkar (200 n.o.) to reach the coveted double ton.
Enroute his 158-ball-209, Rohit created a world record by hitting as many as 16 sixes along with 12 fours. His 16 sixes bettered Shane Watson's effort of 15 sixes against Bangladesh in an ODI match.
This was also the highest individual ODI score by any batsman against Australia in ODIs as well as being India's highest team total against the visitors. The last five overs produced an unbelievable 101 runs.
While Rohit scored his first 100 off 114 balls, the next hundred came off only 42 deliveries. All the sixes were clean straight hits in the arc between deep extra-cover and deep mid-wicket. There was minimum muscle and maximum timing in each and every six that he hit.
Put into bat by the Australian skipper George Bailey, the home team rode on Rohit's brilliant batting display which was complemented by his opening partner Shikhar Dhawan (60) and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni who batted in his customary style smacking a 38-ball-62 with seven fours and two sixes.
Rohit and Dhoni added a staggering 167 runs for the fifth wicket in only 15.4 overs at an average of 10.65 while the opening partnership again proved to be productive yielding 112 runs.
The men who missed out included Virat Kohli (0) and the two horribly out-of-form players Yuvraj Singh (12) and Suresh Raina (28).
While another in-form batsman Kohli was run-out for duck without scoring and looked angry, the Delhi star was the most vocal in his applause when Rohit reached his individual milestones.
Having got a second wind after being promoted as an opener, Rohit also completed 1000 runs in ODIs this year at a very impressive average of 50 plus.
This is Rohit's third big score in the current apart from his match-winning 141 at Jaipur and 79 in the last game at Nagpur.
Most sixes in an innings | |||||||
Player | Runs | Balls | Fours | Sixes | Strike Rate | Opposition | Ground |
RG Sharma | 209 | 158 | 12 | 16 | 132.27 | Australia | Bangalore |
SR Watson | 185* | 96 | 15 | 15 | 192.70 | Bangladesh | Dhaka |
XM Marshall | 157* | 118 | 11 | 12 | 133.05 | Canada | King City (NW) |
ST Jayasuriya | 134 | 65 | 11 | 11 | 206.15 | Pakistan | Singapore |
Shahid Afridi | 102 | 40 | 6 | 11 | 255.00 | Sri Lanka | Nairobi (Gym) |
MS Dhoni | 183* | 145 | 15 | 10 | 126.20 | Sri Lanka | Jaipur |
MV Boucher | 147* | 68 | 8 | 10 | 216.17 | Zimbabwe | Potchefstroom |
ML Hayden | 181* | 166 | 11 | 10 | 109.03 | New Zealand | Hamilton |
BB McCullum | 166 | 135 | 12 | 10 | 122.96 | Ireland | Aberdeen |
Abdul Razzaq | 109* | 72 | 7 | 10 | 151.38 | South Africa | Abu Dhabi |
With the current ODI rules of having five fielders inside the circle at any point of time has proved to be a draconian one for the bowlers who have been taken to the cleaners.
All the frontline Australian bowlers got a hammering with Clint McKay (1-89 in 10 overs) ending up with worst figures.
Nathan Coultier-Nile (0-80 in 10 overs), James Faulkner (1-75 in 10 overs) and Xavier Doherty (2-74 in 10 overs) were smoked to all parts of the ground by Rohit and Dhoni.
Rohit ultimately fell to Mckay when he was caught by substitute Moises Henriques, who had come in to field for Shane Watson who suffered from an hamstring injury.
Rohit-Dhawan brought up the third century opening stand for India in this series after he rocked back and cut Glenn Maxwell to deep extra cover fence. This was also their sixth century stand this year and became the only pair to do so in a calendar year.
They were also involved in match-winning 176 and 178 runs opening partnership in Jaipur and Nagpur one-dayers, respectively.
Dhawan was lucky to have survived on 41 when Watson missed a run-out chance at backward point after he threw the ball wide, giving ample time for the Delhi lad to get back into the crease.
Doherty did the damage for the visitors, scalping two important wickets of Dhawan and Suresh Raina, and pegged India back to some extent after the roaring start given by the openers.
Kohli, who needed 81 runs to beat Vivian Richards' record of being the fastest batsman to reach 5000-run mark in one-dayers, was unfortunately run out. Raina and Yuvaraj fell to Doherty and James Faulkner in quick succession but Rohit and Dhoni more than made up for their failures.
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