India vs Australia 2019: How the visitors scripted an unlikely comeback to win the series

Every team would want to finish their last international series on a winning note before going into the World Cup, and India looked to do the same. Both India and Australia took the series as the platform to have a final dress rehearsal before the mega event, and they came out with some significant lessons too.

With the series leveled at 2-2, both teams looked to seal the series as they faced each other at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. While India had started the series well with two wins in the first two ODIs, Australia bounced back brilliantly winning the following two games.

All eyes were on the 5th ODI to see which team would lift their game and seal the series.

Winning the toss, Australia did not hesitate to bat, although there was a chance that dew would be a deciding factor later in the evening. And Aaron Finch and Usman Khawaja gave the Aussies a good start.

Although Finch (27 runs off 43 balls) was cleaned up by a sharp delivery from Ravindra Jadeja, ending a 78 run first wicket stand, Khawaja continued his sublime form. He smashed the Indian bowlers all over the park to register his 2nd international hundred (100 runs off 106 balls) before getting out by offering a simple catch to Virat Kohli off Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

At that point Australia were 175-2, looking to get past 300. However, the Indian bowlers did a commendable job to restrict the visitors to 272-9 in 50 overs.

Peter Handscomb (52 runs off 60 balls) was another star of the Australian innings while Glenn Maxwell (1), Alex Carey (3), Marcus Stoinis (20) and Ashton Turner (20) failed to set the stage on fire.

At one stage Australia were struggling at 229-7, but Jhye Richardson (29 off 21 balls) and Pat Cummins (15) pushed the team total to 272.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked 3 wickets for 48 runs while Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja scalped two apiece, and they were supported by Kuldeep Yadav who had one wicket to his name.

Chasing at the Kotla is never easy, as has been seen over the years. Shikhar Dhawan (12 runs off 15 balls) fell cheaply to Cummins, sending alarm bells ringing in the hosts' camp. But Rohit Sharma continued his fine form to complete 8000 runs in ODI cricket before getting out for 56 runs off 89 balls.

For a while Rohit tried to wage a lone battle at one end, but the lack of support from the other end meant the required run rate kept rising. Virat Kohli (20 runs off22 balls) had a rare failure while chasing, which didn't help matters.

Vijay Shankar (16) had an opportunity to make his case stronger for the World Cup, but he too fell cheaply. Rishabh Pant (16) continued his poor show in limited overs cricket too.

Just when India were struggling at 132-6 in 28.5 overs, Kedar Jadhav (44 runs off 57 balls) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (46 runs off 54 balls) stitched together a 91-run partnership off 101 balls, giving India a ray of hope to win the series. However, the departure of both in consecutive balls meant the end of India's chances of winning the match and the series.

The Indian innings came to and end with 237 runs on the board, handing Australia the match by 35 runs and the series by 3-2.

For Australia, Adam Zampa scalped three wickets to break the back of Indian batting lineup. Pat Cummins, Jhye Richardson and Marcus Stoinis also made able contributions to keep the Indian batting in check by taking two wickets apiece, while Nathan Lyon took one.

Usman Khawaja was declared Man of the Match as well as Man of the Series for the sublime form he showed by scoring 383 runs from five matches with two hundreds.

With the series being over, Australia will head to UAE to face Pakistan in their Iast international assignment before the World Cup. Meanwhile India are left with a lot of questions to be answered before the mega event.