New Delhi:
Rohit Sharma roared back to form in the Mohali ODI with a brilliant 95 and shared a 193-run opening stand with Shikhar Dhawan, who also showed his mettle with his 16th century. Rohit and Dhawan were unable to stitch some solid stands at the top for some games and it came as a welcome relief for Virat Kohli's Indian cricket team ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 which begins on May in England. The five-match ODI series is evenly poised at 2-2, with Australia staging a brilliant comeback with wins in the Ranchi and Mohali ODIs after India had won the Hyderabad and Nagpur ODIs. Heading into the final game at the Feroz Shah Kotla, which will be the last international assignment for India before the World Cup, there are a couple of interesting landmarks for Rohit.
The Mumbai right-hander has 7954 runs from 205 matches and 199 innings. The Delhi ODI will be his 200th innings and he is just 46 runs away from reaching 8000 ODI runs. If he achieves this feat, he will equal Sourav Ganguly's tally and become the second-fastest Indian player to reach the milestone. Ganguly had also achieved the feat in his 200th innings but he had played 208 matches when he achieved it against West Indies in the 2002 ODI in Nagpur.
Rohit also has a fabulous record against Australia. He has hit 69 sixes against them, which is the most any player has ever hit against Australia in ODIs. He also has seven hundreds, which is the third-most by a player in ODIs against the five-time World Champions, behind Sachin Tendulkar's tally of nine tons and Virat Kohli's eight centuries. If Rohit Sharma scores 76 more runs, he will become only the fourth player in history to score 2000 ODI runs against Australia.
Sachin Tendulkar once again stands on top with 3077 runs in 71 ODIs against Australia at an average of 44.59. Desmond Haynes and Sir Vivian Richards of the West Indies are second and third respectively with 2262 and 2187 runs respectively.
Heading into the final ODI at the Feroz Shah Kotla, both teams will back themselves to win the series. India are playing at home and have not lost a series since 2015 while Australia are determined to break their rut in ODIs, having not won a bilateral series since January 2017 when they defeated Pakistan 4-1 at home.
