It was a collective failure, says Rohit Sharma as India lose first ODI series at home in 4 years

Chennai:  After India’s 21-run loss against Australia in the third ODI on Wednesday, captain Rohit Sharma termed the defeat as a “collective failure”.

“I do not think it was too many runs (Australia’s 269). We did not bat well. Partnerships are crucial and that is something we failed to do today. You are brought up playing in these type of wickets, it is important you apply. After the start, it was important for one batter to carry on and take the game deep. It just did not happen. A lot of takeaways. We can take a lot of positives from the nine ODIs since January. We need to understand where we need to improve. It is a collective failure, we can take a lot of learnings from this series. Credit to the Australians. Both the spinners applied the pressure and so did their seamers,” said Rohit in a post-match presentation.

Virat Kohli’s half-century went in vain as Adam Zampa’s four-wicket haul and all-round team efforts helped Australia defeat India by 21 runs in the third and last match of the ODI series at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

With this win, Australia clinched the three-match ODI series by 2-1. This is India’s first series defeat at home since 2019. They had previously lost to Australia  3-2 in an ODI series back in March 2019.

After electing to bat first, Australia scored 269 runs in 49 overs. Marsh was named the ‘Man of the Series’ for scoring 194 runs in three innings at an average of 97.00, with best score of 81 and two half-centuries.

Brief score: Australia 269 (Mitchell Marsh 47, Alex Carey 38; Hardik Pandya 3-44) vs India 248 (Virat Kohli 54, Hardik Pandya 40; Adam Zampa 4-45).