India suffered a rare defeat in the third ODI against Australia at the JSPA Stadium in Ranchi on Friday as the visitors beat the men in blue by 32 runs to stay alive in the five match series. Chasing a stiff target of 314, the men in blue were pegged back by the early loss of their openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma who have looked quite off colour in the series so far. The early departure of the Indian openers was followed by the wicket of Ambati Rayudu which left India reeling at 27/3.
A lot was expected from MS Dhoni in his last ever international outing at his home ground and the expectations were huge as he came in to join Virat Kohli at the crease. The two somewhat avoided a collapse and kept the scoreboard ticking never letting the run rate creep up significantly. Dhoni was looking well set on 26 off 42 balls before the 59 run stand between the two was broken by a tossed up Australian spinner Adam Zampa in the first ball of the 20th over.
Zampa tossed the ball up invitingly and Dhoni came down hard looking to bang the ball down the ground, missing the line in the process. The bal took the thick inside edge of the bat and rolled on to the stumps. The crowd at Ranchi were stunned to silence as the local boy had fallen, perhaps for a final time at his hometown stadium. The Australians had built the pressure around the former skipper and it was his attempt to break the shackles that had brought about his downfall after having having looked comfortable for most part of his innings.
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