India all-rounder Hardik Pandya on Sunday said that he is happy to bat anywhere and sees it as an opportunity to do something nice for the team.
"Happy to bat anywhere they want me to. Rather seeing it as challenge, I see it as opportunity to do something nice for team," he said while addressing the media after winning the third ODI against Australia here.
Pandya's all round performance helped India on Sunday to win the third one-day international against visitors Australia. India defeated Australia by five wickets to capture the five-match series with 3-0 lead.
Chasing Australian total of 293 runs, India scored the winning runs with 13 balls remaining and five wickets in hand.
Three 70-run-innings by Indian batsmen wasted Australian opener Aaron Finch's century. Three seventies were scored by Hardik Panday, Ajinkya Rahane, and Rohit Sharma.
Pandya was the top scorer with 78 runs. Pandya hit five boundaries and four sixes in his 72-ball scintillating innings. Pat Cummins took his wicket when he got him caught by Kane Richardson.
Pandya was declared Man of the Match.
Openers Sharma and Rahane scored 71 and 70 runs respectively.
Rohit Sharma hit six boundaries and four sixes in his 62-ball innings before he became victim of Coulter-Nile delivery in 22nd over.
In the 24th over, Pat Cummins got Rahane's wicket, who hit nine boundaries in his 76-ball innings.
Skipper Virat Kohli scored 28 runs in 35 balls with two boundaries before getting out in 35th over.
Kedar Jadhav scored two runs. Manish Pandey and M.S. Dhoni remained not out.
Pat Cummins took two wickets by spending 54 runs in his 10-over spell. Nile, Richardson and Agar claimed one wicket each.
Earlier, the 154-run partnership between opener Aaron Finch and skipper Steven Smith helped Australia post an impressive total of 293 for the loss of six wickets.
Having won his first toss of the series, Australian captain Steven Smith decided to bat first on a seemingly flat surface at the Holkar Stadium.
The opening pair of Finch and David Warner took a slow start and added 70 runs to the scoreboard in 13 overs, after which Hardik Pandya sent Warner back to pavilion.
Finch and Smith stood strong with individual scores of 124 and 63 respectively, thus giving the visiting team a mounting total of 294 runs to defend.
Aaron Finch returned from a calf injury to become the first Australian opener since Shaun Marsh in 2009 to score an ODI century in India.
For India, pacer Jasprit Bumrah bowled an impressive 10-over spell of two wickets for 52 runs, while spinner Kuldeep Yadav bagged two wickets at the cost of 75 runs.
Meanwhile, Yuzvendra Chahal and Hardik Pandya chipped in with one wicket each.
Australia made two changes for this all-important ODI. Aaron Finch and Peter Handscomb replaced Hilton Cartwright and Matthew Wade respectively. India did not make any changes.
Umpires were Marais Erasmus and Chettithody Shamsuddin, and Match referee was Jeff Crowe.
Meanwhile, the All-India Senior Selection Committee has named the Indian Cricket Team for the last two ODIs of the ongoing five-match series against Australia.
Opener Shikhar Dhawan, who missed the first three games due to family emergency, is left out for the last two matches.
Barring this, the team remains the same.
The team for last two ODIs against Australia is as follows:
Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Axar Patel.
On that note, the fourth ODI will be on September 28 in Bengaluru and the fifth will be in Nagpur on October 1.
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