CHENNAI. India (AP) — Indian pacers Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj struggled with the new ball, but Hardik Pandya took 3-44 in eight overs to bring India back into the game.
First, Pandya had Head caught at square leg, and three balls later, Steve Smith was caught behind for a duck. Australia was down to 85-3 within 3.4 overs when Pandya also trapped Marsh lbw.
Wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav picked up 3-56, dismissing both David Warner (23) and Marnus Labuschagne (28) as Australia was reduced to 138-5 in 28.1 overs.
Warner, who came in at number four, added 40 runs with Labuschagne for the fourth wicket before the duo fell in the space of four overs.
Carey held the lower order together as he stitched a 58-run partnership with Marcus Stoinis (25). While the latter was out caught off Axar Patel (2-57) in the 37th over, Yadav bowled Carey to make it 203-7 in the 39th.
Australia’s tail wagged hard enough to add 66 runs for the final three wickets, which proved vital.
Sean Abbott scored 26 off 23 balls, with Ashton Agar scoring 17 runs. Mitchell Starc and Zampa added 10 runs each to push Australia to a challenging total.
India’s chase began on a positive note, with openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill adding 65 runs off 55 balls.
But the duo fell within a space of 19 balls to leave India at 77-2. Sharma was caught off Abbott after scoring 30 off 17 balls, while Zampa picked his first of the night, trapping Gill lbw for 37 off 49 balls.
Kohli spearheaded the chase after that, scoring a sedate 54 off 72 balls, including two fours and a six. He added 69 runs for the third wicket with Lokesh Rahul (32) before the latter holed out off Zampa, who has his best figures on Indian soil.
India went from 146-3 to 151-4, as Patel (2) was run-out after a mix-up with Kohli, who had reached his 64th ODI half-century off 61 balls.
He added 34 runs with Pandya, but the turning point came in the 36th over when Kohli was caught at long off.
Suryakumar Yadav’s horrendous run continued as he fell for a first-ball duck for the third time in the series. Agar bowled him off to reduce India to 185-6 and swing the match in Australia’s favor.
Zampa returned to dismiss Pandya, who scored 40 off 40 balls, and Ravindra Jadeja (18) as India lost its first bilateral home ODI series since 2019.
The leg spinner was named the player of the match.
“I have had some success in India,” Zampa said. “It is a tough place to come and always a huge challenge to play here. I don’t think I deserve this tonight, kudos to the guys who bowled before me. We had trust in our process and in our game plan.”
Australia was also the last team to win an ODI series here, and in this duration, India had won seven consecutive bilateral contests at home.
India had won the first ODI by five wickets, and Australia had bounced back with a 10-wicket win.
“I don’t think it was too many runs,” said Sharma, the Indian skipper. “The wicket was challenging in the second innings, but we didn’t bat well enough. We failed to put up partnerships today. We will play a World Cup in these conditions in six months and need to improve. Better performance is expected when you are brought up on such wickets.”