The much-awaited India vs Australia ODI series will kick-start from 17th September. In past few years, Indo-Aus rivalry has become one of the best rivalries in Cricket. Though Australia is way ahead in head to head battle but India also had its moments. So reviving top 5 most memorable wins by Team India over Australia :
Coco-cola Cup final (1998, Sharjah)
Arguably, the finest performance by Sachin Tendulkar. Put into bat, Australia posted a challenging 272 for nine, thanks to fifties from skipper Steve Waugh and Darren Lehmann. India was off to a decent start as after losing Dada early, Tendulkar added 89 runs along with Nayan Mongia & 120 runs with captain Mohammad Azharuddin which laid the foundation of a historic win. Tendulkar’s 134 off 131 balls in the final is considered as one of the best ODI knocks ever.
CB Series 2008, 1st final (SCG)
Getting lucky with the toss in the 1st final of CB series, Australia chose to go in with the bat but lost Gilchrist, Ponting, and Clarke pretty early. Hayden and Symonds took charge of the situation & put a century stand but then Team India strike back & kept taking wickets at regular intervals and finally restricted Aussies to 239.
After losing 3 wickets on just 87 during the chase, Sachin (117*) took the charge with young Rohit Sharma (66) who laid the foundation of India’s memorable win down under. Later India won the 2nd final too & lifted the trophy.
World Cup 2011, Quarter-Final (Ahmedabad)
Australian captain Ricky Ponting led from the front with a fine century to help his side post a competitive 260. Although Virender Sehwag perished early, Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir scored watchful fifties to keep India in the hunt. The triple World Champions fought back hard to reduce India to 187/5. However, Yuvraj Singh (57), who was the pick of the Indian bowlers, shared an unbeaten 74-run stand with Suresh Raina to end the Aussie domination in ICC World Cup.
IND vs AUS, 2nd ODI (2013, Jaipur)
When Sawai Mansingh Stadium of Jaipur witnesses a run-fest. Winning the toss, Australia opted to bat & with the help of the fifties by Finch, Hudges, Watson, Bailey & Maxwell, Australia pilled-up the mammoth total of 359.
Chasing such a huge total is always a Herculean task but Team India had some other plans. Indian Openers gave a flying start as they added 176 runs for the 1st wicket before Dhawan dismissed on 95. Rohit Sharma was then joined by Virat Kohli who was in the beast mode. King Kohli smashed the fastest ODI hundred by an Indian batsman (52 balls) & put a match-winning 186 runs stand with Rohit Sharma who scored unbeaten 141 runs. Team India pulled off an unbelievable chase with 9 wickets in hand & 39 balls to spare.
IND vs AUS, 5th ODI (2016, SCG)
In a match that was nothing but a dead rubber, all that was left for India was to avoid a clean sweep by the home side in Sydney. India opted to bowl first & the Aussie domination continues. Warner (122) & Marsh (102*) guided Australia to a huge total of 330. India got a much-needed start from their openers Dhawan(78) & Rohit (99) but the man of the night was Manish Pandey who scored his maiden ODI hundred (104*) & took team India home with 2 balls to spare & helped his team to avoid the clean-sweep.
