Master finisher Mahendra Singh Dhoni eased India to a seven-wicket victory to clinch their one-day international series against Australia in Melbourne on Friday.
The unflappable veteran wicketkeeper hit his third half-century of the three-game series to again prove the difference after his match-winning knock in the second game in Adelaide.
The 37-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman kept his usual cool during an unbeaten 87 off 114 balls as India chased down Australia's 230 with four balls to spare at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
It consummated a hugely-successful tour of Australia where Virat Kohli's team also claimed a historic first-ever 2-1 Test series win Down Under.
“It's been an amazing tour for us. We drew the T20 series, won the Test and the ODI series,” Kohli said.
“We are feeling confident and balanced as a side with the World Cup in mind.”
Dhoni was given tremendous support from Kedar Jadhav with a belligerent unbeaten 61 from 57 balls in a match-winning 121-run stand.
“I am happy to bat at any number,” said man-of-the-series Dhoni. “The important thing is where the team needs me. I can't say I can't bat at No. 6 after playing 14 years.”
India wrapped up the ODI series after losing the opening match in Sydney by 34 runs before levelling with a six-wicket win in Adelaide to set up the decider in Melbourne.
Dhoni, a much-loved sporting hero back home, captained India to a World Cup win in 2011. He quit Tests in 2014, and stepped down as the limited-overs skipper three years later.
Kohli looked set for another big score before he was caught behind off Jhye Richardson for 46 off 62 balls in the 30th over leaving his side at 113 for three.
Dhoni and Jadhav took up where Kohli left off, guiding their team to a convincing victory.
India leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal earlier captured the best figures by any bowler in one-day cricket in Australia to restrict the home side to just 230.
Chahal, playing in his first match in the series after coming in for Test wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav, mesmerised the Australians with his six for 42.
“I enjoyed bowling for the first time in Australia (internationals). The ball was spinning a little bit, so I planned to bowl slow and vary my pace,” said Chahal, named man-of-the-match.
Chahal shares the record with fellow Indian Ajit Agarkar, who claimed the same figures against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 2004.
Only Peter Handscomb showed any appreciable fight for Australia with his 58 off 63 balls before he became one of Chahal's victims.
It was an underwhelming batting performance by the Australians, who managed just 17 boundaries before they were bowled out with eight balls left.
“We took it down to the wire. When you give some great players a couple of chances, it always hurts,” Australia captain Aaron Finch said.
Australia's openers again failed to get a start and Alex Carey was out in the third over when he got a nick off Bhuvneshwar Kumar and was taken by Kohli at second slip for five.
His partner Finch followed six overs later again to Kumar, trapped leg before wicket for 14.
Shaun Marsh and Usman Khawaja steadied the innings before Adelaide centurion Marsh was smartly stumped by Dhoni off a wide down the leg-side from Chahal for 39.
Khawaja followed three balls later when he got a thick leading edge and offered Chahal a return catch for 34.
Marcus Stoinis lasted 20 balls before he became Chahal's third victim, caught at slip by Rohit Sharma for 10, leaving Australia rocking at 123 for five in the 30th over.
Glenn Maxwell hit a breezy 26 off 19 balls before Mohammed Shami enticed him to pull with a short-pitched delivery to Kumar sprinting in from the deep to take a diving catch.
Richardson played against the spin and chipped the ball to short midwicket where Jadhav took the chance for 16, giving Chahal his fourth wicket.
Handscomb was trapped plumb in front of his stumps by Chahal in the 46th over and Australia's innings rattled to a quick close.
Summary of series ODI matches Ind v Aus
1st ODI (D/N) at Sydney, Jan 12 2019
Australia 288/5; Ind 254/9 (target 289)
Australia won by 34 runs
2nd ODI (D/N) at Adelaide, Jan 15 2019
Australia 298/9; Ind 299/4 (49.2/50 ov)
India won by 6 wkts with 4 balls remaining
3rd ODI (D/N) at Melbourne, Jan 18 2019
Australia 230; Ind 234/3 (49.2/50 ov)
India won by 7 wkts with 4 balls remaining

Chris Woakes claimed 3-31 as England took 11 wickets on the final day of their warm-up match against a Cricket West Indies President's XI in Barbados.
Stuart Broad, who took a hat-trick in the first warm-up game, struck with the day's first ball before Woakes took his wickets in the afternoon session.
In the 12-a-side match, teams could bat on after the fall of the 10th wicket – and the hosts reached 233-11.
The first Test against the West Indies begins in Barbados today (Wednesday, Jan 23).
After Jonny Bairstow hit 98 in England's 379-10 on the first day, the tourists focused on their bowlers on day two.
Woakes dismissed the President's XI top-scorer Sunil Ambris (94) in the 48th over and struck again in his next over before the match was brought to an end 80 minutes prior to the scheduled close.
"You try and get as much out of these games as you can and I think we have done everything we can to get ready," said Warwickshire all-rounder Woakes, who was an unused member of the tour squad that won 3-0 in Sri Lanka last winter.
"It's always important to get out in the middle. It's good for bowlers to get some time in their legs, and batters learn how to build an innings again after a break.
"As a seamer in Sri Lanka, it was hard to get into the team. When a side is winning and with conditions as they were, you can't really see a way in for yourself but here with the ball moving around you're a bit more upbeat on your chances of playing."
Broad claimed 2-33 to add to his 4-19 from the first match - and each of the other five bowlers used took a wicket apiece.
Summary results of Tour Matches
Tour Match, at Cave Hill, Jan 15-16, 2019
England 317/10d; West Indies President's XI 203 (79.5 ov); Match drawn
Tour Match, at Cave Hill, Jan 17-18, 2019
England 379; West Indies President's XI
233/11 (73 ov); Match drawn

1st Test, at Bridgetown, Jan 23-27 2019
2nd Test, at North Sound, Jan 31 - Feb 4 2019
3rd Test, at Gros Islet, Feb 9-13 2019
Tour Match, at Cave Hill, Feb 17 2019
1st ODI, (D/N) at Bridgetown, Feb 20 2019
2nd ODI, (D/N) at Bridgetown, Feb 22 2019
3rd ODI, at St George's, Feb 25 2019
4th ODI, at St George's, Feb 27 2019
5th ODI, (D/N) at Gros Islet, Mar 2 2019
1st T20I, (D/N) at Gros Islet, Mar 5 2019
2nd T20I, (D/N) at Basseterre, Mar 8 2019
3rd T20I, (D/N) at Basseterre, Mar 10 2019

Hendrick 'Rassie' van der Dussen and Andile Phehlukwayo guided South Africa to a series-levelling win in a roller-coaster second one-day international against Pakistan at Kingsmead on Tuesday.
The pair came together when South Africa were 80 for five in reply to Pakistan's 203. They put on an unbeaten 127 as South Africa won by five wickets with eight overs to spare.
Van der Dussen, 29, playing in his second one-day international, made an unbeaten 80 after scoring 93 on debut in South Africa's five-wicket defeat in the first match in Port Elizabeth.
“What you look for in new players is composure and calmness at the crease. We're looking for big-match players. He's smashing that door down for a permanent position in our strongest XI,” said South African captain Faf du Plessis.
Phehlukwayo was named man-of-the-match after two career-best performances.
He took four for 22 in Pakistan's innings and then scored 69 not out to share Du Plessis's praise for what he said was an outstanding partnership.
The match went through several phases.
An early finish seemed likely when Pakistan crashed to 112 for eight after being sent in to bat. But Hasan Ali, batting at number ten, hit a career-best 59 off 45 balls and helped captain Sarfraz Ahmed (41) put on 90 for the ninth wicket to enable Pakistan to reach 203.
Left-arm fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi took wickets in each of his first three overs to reduce South Africa to 29 for three.
Van der Dussen and David Miller (31) put on 51 for the fourth wicket but leg-spinner Shadab Khan struck with his second and third deliveries to swing the odds back towards Pakistan.
Phehlukwayo seemed unable to read Shadab's deliveries and a key moment came with his score on seven when he was given out leg before wicket to Shadab. He asked for a review which showed the ball was spinning past his leg stump.
“There were too many soft wickets,” Sarfraz said of Pakistan's top-order batting. “Hasan Ali batted very well. We had a chance at 80 for five. We needed one more wicket.” South Africa dominated the early exchanges.
Four batsmen succumbed to short-pitched bowling from South Africa's seam bowlers, while three fell to left-arm wrist spinner Tabraiz Shamsi.
Kagiso Rabada started Pakistan's slide when he dismissed Imam-ul-Haq and Babar Azam, both caught off mistimed pull shots against short deliveries on a pitch which was slow but with steep bounce when the ball was new.
Fakhar Zaman and Shoaib Malik also fell to short balls.
In the forst ODI in the series, the tourists beat ASouth Africa by 5 wickets with Imam-ul-Haq and Mohammad Hafeez hit half-centuries. Opener Imam hit 86 while Hafeez finished on an unbeaten 71 as Pakistan chased down their 267-run target with five balls to spare.
Hashim Amla who hit his 27th one-day international century (108 not out) shared a second-wicket partnership of 155 with debutant Rassie van der Dussen (93) but the pair were unable to dominate against steady bowling on a slow pitch.
The remaining games on the tour are as follows:
FRI 25/1 - 06:00 AM EST
3rd ODI, (D/N) at Centurion, Jan 25 2019
SUN 27/1 - 03:00 AM EST
4th ODI, at Johannesburg, Jan 27 2019
WED 30/1 - 06:00 AM EST
5th ODI, (D/N) at Cape Town, Jan 30 2019
FRI 1/2 - 11:00 AM EST
1st T20I, (N) at Cape Town, Feb 1 2019
SUN 3/2 - 07:30 AM EST
2nd T20I, at Johannesburg, Feb 3 2019
WED 6/2 - 11:00 AM EST
3rd T20I, (N) at Centurion, Feb 6 2019

By Romeo Kaseram
(Part II)
In his ESPN review of Ganteaume’s 2007 autobiography, My Story: The Other Side of the Coin, the eminent Trinidad-born sports journalist and cricket commentator, Fazeer Mohammed, notes it is about time the other side of one of cricket’s most “puzzling stories” be placed on record. What Mohammed is referencing is more than the rarified air that Ganteaume shares as an equal among equals in his place with the world’s select few who scored a century in a Test debut. Mohammed also notes Ganteaume’s “unique niche in the annals of the game”. It is in this “niche” where the “puzzling” component of the narrative resides, a consequence of the imperial and privileged historicity of the time and place in which Ganteaume produced his 112-run knock, in what was to be his first and last Test appearance. But in what grew into an unanticipated corollary that now resides in the annals of international cricketing records, Ganteaume’s 112-run knock became the century of the 20th century, his hard-won score rising upwards without discrimination to endure with longevity as cricket’s top Test average; it is an average that has so far defiantly remained unsurpassed into the 21st century.
It was no easy task for Ganteaume to achieve his century of the century; the challenges before him were both on the field of play, and beyond the boundary. The oeuvre of Mohammed’s textuality is notable for its undercurrents of intuition, and it is no surprise to discover it in his review’s opening reference to the “other side of one of cricket’s most puzzling stories”, working as a ricochet off Ganteaume’s metaphorical subtext of two sides to a coin. However, there is more to Ganteaume’s invocation of the coin as being representative of the currency that balances two sides to a narrative; it is also a medium, which when as probability’s tool it is flipped upwards to then fall onto the cricketing pitch to decide from its 50:50 outcome who goes in to bat, and who does not. In the world of empire, in the post-war colonial British West Indies, it appears the tossed penny that decided Ganteaume’s cricketing fate was loaded on both sides with the imperial head of George VI.
Such a tossed coin could not fall in favour of the cricketer who has become the unintentional keeper of the game’s highest Test average. Writing in ESPN cricinfo, Tony Cozier tells us as a “neat, diminutive batsman and wicketkeeper, Ganteaume was consistent, rather than dominant, in regional cricket following his debut”. In February 1941, the 20-year-old kept wicket, scoring 87 while batting at number 8 for Trinidad against Barbados at the Queen’s Park Oval. In the following seasons, Ganteaume played regularly for Trinidad in first-class games; later, he was promoted from the middle order to an opener, a practice done in that time with wicketkeepers. In the 1946 season, he scored the first two of his five first-class centuries, 112 against Barbados and 159 against Jamaica; during the matches in Trinidad against the touring English team, he scored 101, 47 not out, 5 and 90.
He “was in the form of his life leading into the second Test, in Port-of-Spain, in a series marking the resumption of Test cricket in the Caribbean after World War II”, Cozier writes. But despite his more notable scores, and the outward signs of cricketing form and performativity with the blade, a pick with the original Test team was not even considered a possibility.
The call only came, as Peter Mason writes in The Guardian, “through the gritted teeth of the selectors and because of an injury to Jeff Stollmeyer, a white Trinidadian batsman”. Mason focalises the reluctance by the selectors to cap Ganteaume inside the new historicism of the colonised by noting the contextualised limitations of Ganteaume’s ancestry, that his lineage included mixed African and Indian heritage, and his “misfortune to be playing in an era when the team was still picked and captained by members of the white establishment”.
Thus as Mason notes, “Summoned to hear the news of his selection at the Queen’s Park Oval cricket ground, Ganteaume was confronted by the West Indies administrator Edgar Marsden who, Ganteaume later recalled, ‘could not disguise his resentment at having to announce something that he did not want to happen’.” The mixed signals of conflicting with his form and performance, and the ancillary undertones of racial resentment in his Test call-up, left Ganteaume convinced “that the establishment wanted him to fail”; consequently, as Mason notes, he “resolved to make a hefty score on his debut to make himself undroppable”.
Cozier’s cricket commentary, ever elucidating with detail, tells us, “Never a dasher but rather a steady accumulator of runs, [Ganteaume] and George Carew… started with an opening partnership of 173 against England in Barbados. Carew fell for 107; Ganteaume proceeded to his historic hundred in partnership with Frank Worrell, carrying West Indies past 300 in reply to England’s 362… At that point [team captain Gerry] Gomez dispatched a note to the two in the middle. ‘I want you to push on now,’ it read. ‘We are behind the clock and need to score more quickly…’
Stollmeyer concurred with Gomez’s decision… ‘Andy’s innings in its later stages was not in keeping with the state of the game,’ wrote Stollmeyer in his autobiography. ‘His captain was forced to send a message out to him to ‘get on with it’.” In a match that lost time due to rain, West Indies were faced with scoring 141 in an hour; the game was drawn. Ganteaume was blamed for the outcome; his innings read: caught J.T. Ikin, bowled H. Holworth, 13 fours, 112 runs. In an emergent irony outlasting the racialised machinations inherent in post-war British West Indies privilege, today Ganteaume’s 112 outruns Donald Bradman’s 99.94 as cricket’s highest Test average.
For the rest of his life, Ganteaume felt the injustice over his non-selection at the Test level, Mason tells us; yet he never allowed himself to become bitter. Mohammed’s words are poig-nant for its intuitive utterance of exclamatory incredulity inside today’s contemporary post-colonial world: “Imagine the outrage now, especially in the player’s home territory, should a batsman be dispensed with after scoring a hundred on his Test debut[!!]” In 2007, Ganteaume published My Story: The Other Side of the Coin, wherein were Mason’s words, he “firmly but restrainedly blamed his exile on the entrenched racial order of the time”. Ganteaume’s words are epigraphic of the injustice he endured in his time: “The aristocracy had to be kept up and the establishment boys had to have a share of the pie,” he wrote. He died on February 17, 2016.

Sources: Fazeer Mohammed, “Andy and ‘The Establishment’,” http://www.espn.com/cricket/story/_/id/22920263/andy-establishment; Tony Cozier, ‘More to Ganteaume than his average’, http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/973813.html; Peter Mason, ‘Andy Ganteaume Obituary’, https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/feb/18/andy-ganteaume-obituary.

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