What's the story?
After the first two ODIs resulted in a one-sided affair, New Zealand on Monday locked horns with India for the third time in the five-match series.
Kiwi captain, Kane Williamson won the toss and elected to bat at Mount Maunganui with the aim of posting a big score.
In the middle of New Zealand's innings, Hardik Pandya, who was making his return after being out for a while, lost his cool at teammate Shikhar Dhawan. The latter looked a bit lazy to throw the ball making Pandya lash out at him.
In case you didn't know
Hardik Pandya on Monday made his return to the Indian national team since Asia Cup 2018. The all-rounder injured himself in the mid-way of the tournament and was later ruled out of the squad.
The Baroda-born was called back to Indian ODI squad for Australia assignment. However, he alongside KL Rahul was involved in a controversy, following which they were banned until it was lifted last week.
The heart of the matter
Coming back after weeks of trouble, Pandya finally got back into the Indian colors in the third ODI against New Zealand at Bay Oval, replacing Vijay Shankar in the playing XI.
The right-arm pacer was surely looking under deep pressure as it's never easy to find back the rhythm after being out of the scene for a while.
Meanwhile, in one of his overs, the shoddy fielding by Shikhar Dhawan frustrated Pandya. While fielding at the mid-wicket, Dhawan collected the ball and instead of throwing at the bowler or wicket-keeper's end, he sent it to square-leg, costing India an extra run.
Irked by the throw, Pandya was heard saying, "Come on Yaar" while directing to Shikhar Dhawan. In the meantime, the 25-year-old scalped two wickets while giving away 45 runs in his quota of 10 overs.
Here is the video
What's next?
Some exceptional display of batting by Ross Taylor and Tom Latham helped Kiwis post a total of 243 runs. They would be looking to take early wickets to remain alive in the series.
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