Hardik Pandya is one of the agilest fielders in the Indian team and same goes for MS Dhoni whose fitness is a benchmark given his age. Pandya-Dhoni managed to pull off a game-changing runout in the third T20I against New Zealand to get Tom Bruce out. It happened on the fifth ball of the penultimate over in a rain-curtailed affair (8 overs per side).
Bumrah bowled a terrific yorker to Bruce, beating him with his pace. Bruce and Mitchell Santner tried to take a run through byes. Dhoni threw the ball towards Bumrah and he tried to hit the stumps but missed. That resulted in an overthrow. Pandya, who was fielding at the long-on position, charged towards the ball and threw it towards the striker’s end.
Pandya’s throw was spot on, Dhoni was right behind the stumps waiting for the ball to come to him. As soon as he caught hold of the ball, he dislodged the bails. At the start, he was not sure whether he had run-out Bruce or not but the replays showed that he was way out of the crease. India got another wicket through runout and were dominating in the final T20I as the Kiwi batting lineup suffered a batting collapse.
Here’s the video of the runout –
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Pandya pulled off another runout through a direct hit. It was a big wicket as he sent back New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson back into the pavilion in the fifth over. India won the match by 6 runs as Pandya held his nerve in the final over where the visitors needed 19 to win the match.
