Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli once again delivered as India registered a series-clinching seven-wicket victory over Australia in the third and final ODI at Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Sunday (January 19).

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Chasing 287 to win, India lost in-form KL Rahul (19) cheaply but the duo of Rohit and Kohli rose to the occasion and added 137 runs for the second wicket to put the hosts on the brink of victory.

While the vice-captain Rohit hit 119 off 128 balls – his 29th hundred in ODI cricket, skipper Virat scored 89 off 91 balls.

After their dismissals, the pair of Shreyas Iyer (44* off 35 balls) and Manish Pandey (8 not out) guided the home team over the line with 15 balls to spare.

“On days like this, if it comes off, it looks good,” Rohit said after receiving his Player-of-the-Match award.

“The first two games, I was trying to do something different, and it didn’t come off. Today, I just wanted to be there, and I was able to stay till 35th or 36th over,” he added.

Rohit then reflected on his herculean partnership with the captain himself.

“It was an important game, the decider, and we wanted to come out and enjoy ourselves. To keep that Australian batting under 290 was a great effort. Once KL got out, it needed nobody better than the captain himself,” he asserted.

So what was the discussion between the two out there in the middle during their match-winning stand?

“The talk we had in the middle was that one of us wanted to keep going. At no stage, did we want the momentum to go towards the opposition. I was middling the ball well, and I said I would be the one to take the chances,” Rohit said.

(With PTI inputs)