The Indian skipper, Virat Kohli was happy that the team showed some “heart and desire” in the third ODI against Australia in Canberra on Wednesday, despite the series already being sealed by Australia after the second game. India successfully defended their total of 302 and beat Australia by 13 runs at the Manuka Oval.

During the post-match presentation, Virat Kohli said, “We played with heart and desire, and that’s what you need to do in Australia. It’s particularly pleasing that we were under the pump for the first half of our innings and the second half of Australia’s, and we fought back both times. Playing international cricket for 13-14 years, you should be able to come back as we did.”

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After losing Shikhar Dhawan early, Kohli rebuilt for India along with Shubman Gill, but after Gill fell for 33, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul were quick to follow, with both batsmen failing to make a mark. Kohli carried on the fight with Hardik Pandya, but departed for 68, leaving India reeling at 152/5. But Hardik and Ravindra Jadeja put on an unbeaten 150-run partnership to take India to 302/5 at the end of 50 overs.

Describing the same, the Indian skipper said, “I would have liked to go on for a bit longer, but we had a great partnership between Hardik and Jadeja. It was exactly what the team needed to get that boost, even though we’ve lost the series. I think the pitch was much better in terms of helping the bowlers, so obviously the confidence levels go up. We were able to put Australia under pressure because of that fact as well.”

While Shubman Gill replaced Mayank Agarwal, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav and T Natarajan all came into the bowling attack, replacing Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, and Yuzvendra Chahal.

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Natarajan scalped a couple of wickets on debut, while Shardul Thakur picked up three scalps. Kuldeep Yadav also picked up a wicket for India.