Finally, India tasted victory. Finally, India applied the finishing touches. Finally, India crossed the line.

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And the unlikely hero was Manish Pandey. The youngster hit a brilliant unbeaten 104 to take the visitors home with six wickets to spare in the final ODI at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Sydney on Saturday. It was a consolation victory for the Indians, though, ensuring the Aussies didn't complete the whitewash as they won the series 4-1. It was a commendable effort by the Indians, setting up a record for the highest run chase against Australia in their backyard.

But just like in the fourth ODI in Canberra, India almost botched up this up as well. Chasing a target of 331, India got off to a flier again thanks to Rohit Sharma (99, 108b, 9x4, 1x6) and Shikhar Dhawan (78, 56b, 7x4, 3x6). The visitors were cruising along when they lost their third wicket at 231 in the 35th over, Rohit edging a John Hastings delivery straight to wicketkeeper Matthew Wade on 99.

Captain MS Dhoni walked in and struggled to time the ball. His innings pushed the asking rate up, so much so that India needed 22 off the final two overs. It then came down to 13 off six with Mitchell Marsh bowling the final over. The Indian skipper, who looked woefully out of form, cleared the fence off a low full toss after the first ball was a wide. Dhoni was holed out in the next ball, leaving Pandey to score six off four balls with two required to complete his maiden ODI century. He did it in style, opening the face of the bat and hitting a fullish ball for a four past third man. The youngster finished the deal with a couple to as vice-captain Virat Kohli came rushing out to congratulate his World Cup-winning U-19 teammate.

It was only fitting that Pandey hit the winning runs. The Karnataka batsman was a treat to watch, showing great skill and temperament for someone who was playing only his fourth ODI. He walked in when India lost Kohli for eight, a dismissal that instilled fears of another Canberra-like collapse. But the 26-year-old Pandey dismissed all those apprehensions, displaying an array of shots to take the counter attack to the Aussies in the company of Rohit, who was adjusted the Man of the Series.

Pandey reached his half century off just 38 balls, and despite losing Rohit at the other end, kept his cool. What was more satisfying to see was how the youngster took the pressure off Dhoni while he was taking his time to get down. Never did Pandey allow the asking rate to get out of control – except towards the last four overs – and always seemed in control of his innings. His knock came of just 81 balls, and was studded with eight fours and a maximum.

Earlier, Australia rode on centuries by David Warner 122 (113b, 9x4, 3x6) and Mitchell 102* (84b, 9x4, 2x6) to notch up a mammoth 330/7 in their 50 overs on another flat SCG deck.

The pick of the Indian bowlers was debutant Jasprit Bumrah, who returned figures of 10-0-40-2 in his debut match.

N ZONE0No. of teams who have successfully chased a score of 300 or more vs Australia in Australia in ODIs before this. WI's 284/3 in Brisbane in 1997 was the previous highest3India's 331-run chase is their third highest successful chase in ODIs after 362/1 in Jaipur and 351/4 in October 2013. Both those chases came against Australia3,159No. of runs scored by both teams in the series, breaking the record for highest runs for a bilateral series of five ODIs or less (previous record was 3,151: NZ-England in 2015)3No. of innings Manish Mandey took to register his maiden ODI ton, the least by an Indian. Kedar Jadhav took four, while Manoj Prabhakar and MS Dhoni took five5,008No. of runs Rohit Sharma now has in ODIs, becoming the 12th Indian batsman to amass 5,000 runs in ODIs. Rohit's tally came in 148 matches at an average of 42.08DID YOU KNOW?All three members of the Marsh family have scored their first ODI century against India. Geoff Marsh slammed 125 in Sydney in January 1986, Shaun Marsh registered 112 in Hyderabad in November 2009 and Mitchell Marsh notched up 102* in Sydney on Saturday