Flamboyant India all-rounder Hardik Pandya feels that his body is adapting well to the ODI format as he picked two crucial wickets against New Zealand in the second ODI at Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium, Raipur. Pandya is slowly getting elevated to the leadership role in white-ball cricket, he has already been leading the T20I side after the last year’s T20 WC. While he is promoted to vice-captain in the ODI format.
Pandya has been in tremendous form with both bat and ball after making his sensational comeback to the Indian team after IPL 2022. He has regained his bowling fitness which makes him one of the Most Valuable Players in the squad who provides the right balance to the side.
India vs New Zealand 2nd ODI: LIVE SCORE
The 29-year-old was impressive with the ball on Saturday in the 2nd ODI against the Kiwis as he claimed crucial wickets of Devon Conway and Mitchell Santner.
He took a stunning catch of his own bowling to remove Conway, while Santner edged the ball to the stumps.
“A brilliant day to be honest, we used the wicket rightly and everything went well for us. That wasn’t bad at all (on the return catch)," Pandya told broadcasters during the mid-innings break.
The flamboyant all-rounder is satisfied with his bowling and fitness for the 50-over format.
“I am just getting used to bowling in ODIs again, my body is feeling better with every match, it’s coming on nicely and timely as well," he added.
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The Indian bowlers were accurate in their bowling, fetched good swing, turn, bounce, and took sharp return catches in an impressive show to bundle out New Zealand for just 108/
On a pitch with some amount of grass cover, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami found seam movement to run through the New Zealand top and middle-order, reducing them to 15/5 at one stage.
“We hit the right areas, kept testing the batters, one of those days when the edges went to the fielders and we grabbed the catches. This isn’t a 108-run wicket, but we took all our chances, Let the batters decide on how to bat, at the end of the day, it’s their call on how to chase this down," Hardik concluded.
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