They are the torch-bearers of Mumbai’s rich batting legacy, and yet they are as different as chalk and cheese. While Rohit Sharma, the one-day vice-captain, likes to impose himself with his audacious strokeplay, Ajinkya Rahane, the Test vice-captain, prefers to grind and coerce the opponent into waving the white flag.
When they are on song, the duo make it that much easier for their teammates. For the third time in succession, they sizzled at the top, resulting in India making mincemeat of a target of 243 in the last of the five ODIs.
Thanks to Rohit’s hundred and his twin partnerships — with Rahane and then with skipper Virat Kohli — at the Vidarbha Cricket Association’s stadium at Jamtha, India overhauled the target with a whopping 7.1 overs to spare.
Had it not been for an emergency in Shikhar Dhawan’s family, this Mumbai pairing might not have materialised at the top of the order in the series. They first set up India’s chase of 294 in Indore with a stand of 139 in 21.4 overs, followed it up with 106 in 18.2 overs in Bengaluru and killed the contest here with a 124-run association in a little over 22 overs to ensure India catapults to the top of the ICC rankings with a 4-1 scoreline.
While Rohit started cautiously, Rahane got into the action right away, flicking Pat Cummins in the opening over and punching the bowler straight behind him in his next over.
Rohit, meanwhile, started getting impatient and was even fortunate as an inside-edge onto his pads lobbed in the air but fell short of the bowler running in. However, once he opened his account with a straight drive off Cummins, the 15th ball he faced, he got into his groove.
He continued in the same vein till a tired swat off leggie Adam Zampa landed in Nathan Coulter-Nile’s palm deep on the on-side with the target just 20 away. With the pacers hardly bowling short to him early, Rohit drove with panache. And once Zampa’s spin was introduced, he opened his arms.
He changed gears swiftly after he lost Rahane, who missed a flick off Coulter-Nile and was rapped in front in the 23rd over. With captain Kohli playing second fiddle, Rohit — who seemed to have some trouble with his right leg, owing primarily to the sweltering heat — preferred the aerial route.
It was indeed fitting that he raised his 14th ODI hundred with a trademark pull off Coulter-Nile that sailed over the mid-wicket fence.
Two overs earlier, Rohit had taken a single to become the ninth Indian to cross 6,000 runs.
The Australians, meanwhile, will rue the fact that neither opener carried on after a good start. After electing to bat, David Warner and Aaron Finch cruised to 60 by the end of the 10-over PowerPlay. However, Finch committed a mistake against first-change bowler Hardik Pandya to give India a breakthrough in the 12th over.
Sensing the lack of bounce in the pitch, Kohli introduced part-timer Kedar Jadhav in the 14th. And the offie delivered yet again by tightening the noose around the Aussie batsmen. He bowled his 10 overs on the trot and also earned the vital wicket of Steve Smith.
Australia yet again slid in the middle overs, losing four wickets for 79 runs in the 20 overs after the PowerPlay. Despite Travis Head and Marcus Stoinis starting a recovery, neither could tackle Axar Patel’s accurate spin and Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s devastating death bowling.
