If this is indeed it, the cricket gods weren’t in Ranchi’s corner. MS Dhoni’s time with the bat lasted less than an hour --- he came in at 6:15pm and left at 7:09 --- and ended just when he and Virat Kohli looked set to provide entertainment that would be recalled long after the teams left the building. But leg-spinner Adam Zampa took both into a cul de sac and dismissed Kedar Jadhav to help Australia win by 32 runs.

Kohli made 123, his 41st one-day century a mix of poetry and panache, temperament and technique till his leg-stump was disturbed by Zampa. You wouldn’t tire seeing the cover-drive off Marcus Stoinis that ended the 26th over even if you saw it on the hour, every hour. Or the back-foot drive through cover, again off Stoinis in the 16th over.

In the over Kohli fell to Zampa, trying to play across the line to one that drifted in, he had hit two fours, the first a cover-drive and the next at mid-wicket. In Zampa’s previous over, Kohli hit a six over long-on, an effort that had Shaun Marsh looking into the night sky and hoping the ball wouldn’t fall beyond the boundary. This was the fifth time Kohli had been dismissed by the leg-spinner.

Usman Khawaja got his debut hundred after being let off by Shikhar Dhawan at backward point when on 17, off Ravindra Jadeja. But if his 104 --- along with Aaron Finch’s 93, Glenn Maxwell’s power hitting and sensible batting by Stoinis and Alex Carey helped Australia score 313/5 --- was good, Kohli’s was super hero stuff.

Kohli’s batting is like a symphony, Dhoni’s is heavy metal. And he was hitting the right notes till Zampa bowled a fuller delivery. Thinking it was ripe for punishment, Dhoni freed his arms but the ball was too close to him and off the bat and the pad it sneaked in.

Walking in after the openers and Ambati Rayudu left India at 27/3 and the amphitheatre at the JSCA Stadium Complex resonating with his name, Dhoni hit a square-driven boundary off Jhye Richardson, who replaced Nathan Coulter-Nile in the only change the teams made from the ODI in Nagpur.

Virat Kohli, left, bats during the third ODI between India and Australia in Ranchi. ( AP )

Two balls later with a short midwicket, a square-leg and a deep fine leg to induce a false shot, Dhoni pulled for four. Not long after that, Nathan Lyon was sent for a six over midwicket with Dhoni dancing down the track.

But like the partnerships between Kohli and Jadhav (88 runs) and that of him and Vijay Shankar (45), the stand between Kohli and Dhoni yielded 49 runs. If this is the last time Dhoni played for India at home, the end was an anti-climax.

Australia’s bowlers continued their good work through the tour and that meant India missed the innings defining partnership of the kind Finch and Khawaja put on: one worth 193. Australia didn’t have a Kohli-like effort but produced a collective show with bat and ball to keep the series alive.

First Published: Mar 08, 2019 21:47 IST