India beat Australia in Sydney, complete 3-0 rout

Images from the third and final T20 International between Australia and India at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

IMAGE: Suresh Raina of India and Yuvraj Singh of India celebrate victory with teammates in the third T20 against Australia in Sydney. Photograph: Matt King/Getty Images

India beat Australia by seven wickets in the third and final Twenty20 match at the Sydney Cricket Ground to win the series 3-0.

Chasing a formidable 198 to complete a clean sweep, the visitors won with the final ball of their innings, Suresh Raina (49 not out) hitting the winning boundary.

- Scorecard

Besides recording their highest run-chase ever on Australian soil, the win also promoted Mahendra Singh Dhoni's boys to the
top of the ICC T20 rankings and they now lead the table in the shortest and the longest format.

This also happened to be India's second highest run-chase after they overhauled 202 against Sri Lanka at Rajkot back in 2010.

IMAGE: Shane Watson of Australia (right) celebrates with teammate Travis Head after scoring a century. Photograph: Matt King/Getty Images

Earlier, stand-in captain Shane Watson pulverised a mediocre Indian bowling to smash an unbeaten 124 as Australia scored a commendable 197 for five.

The seasoned all-rounder played only 71 balls hitting 10 fours and half a dozen of sixes carrying his bat through the innings after winning the toss. Such was Watson's dominance that the next best score was 26 from Travis Head. 

Indian bowlers who were impressive in the first two games were belted out of the park as Australian batsmen hit a total of 16 boundaries and seven sixes in their innings.

The hit pair of Ravichandran Ashwin (1-36) and Ravindra Jadeja (1-41) gave away 77 runs in their quota of eight overs together.

Watson proceeded to score his maiden T20I hundred, surpassing his previous best of 81. It was also the highest score by a captain, besting Faf du Plessis' 111.

IMAGE: Rohit Sharma of India celebrates and acknowledges the crowd after scoring a half century during the Sydney T20. Photograph: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

Chasing a seemingly improbable target, India began in an impressive manner, adding 46 runs off their first 20 ball, thanks largely to a 9-ball 26 by Shikhar Dhawan.

Shaun Tait (0-46) and Scott Boland (0-34) were taken to the cleaners.

Watson had the Delhi batsman caught behind in his first over. However, the in-form Kohli then joined Rohit Sharma at the duo maintained the scoring rate, adding 78 runs (off just 55 balls) for the second wicket.

The duo was gathering runs at pace as the Indian 100-mark came up in only 9.4 overs. Rohit reached his ninth T20 fifty in the process.

An impressive Cameron Boyce (2-28) had Rohit (52) caught by Watson at midwicket. 

IMAGE: Virat Kohli of India bats during the Sydney T20 against Australia. Photograph: Matt King/Getty Images

Kohli completed yet another half century (50).

It was his 12th T20I half century.

In fact, Kohli's aggregate of 199, from the three matches, was impressive enough to win him the player of the series honour.

However, Boyce did manage to get him out immediately after, the batsman deflecting the ball onto his stumps.  

IMAGE: Suresh Raina of India (left) celebrates hitting the winning runs on the last ball of the match with Yuvraj Singh during the Sydney T20. Photograph: Matt King/Getty Images

Raina and Yuvraj Singh (15 not out) kept their cool as they blasted the required 17 runs off the final over to chase down a mammoth target.

Rookie Andrew Tye was given the final over by Watson with 17 runs to get with a shaky Yuvraj batting for the first time in the series on strike. He had scratched his way to five off nine balls before whipping a delivery on the pads over fine leg for a boundary.

With 13 needed from five balls, it was vintage Yuvraj as he rocked back and smashed Tye over deep mid-wicket for a six to bring the equation down to 7 from four balls. Yuvraj and Raina - his 25-ball effort had half a dozen fours and a six - then scampered home for a single to make it six from three balls. 

A couple of doubles from Raina made it two from the last ball as all the fielders were brought inside the circle. The UP left-hander kept his cool as he slashed it over point and the Indian dug-out erupted in wild celebrations as the players rushed to the ground to congratulate the duo.