Gambhir, Afridi caught in war of words

The third ODI saw some sparks flying after a mid-pitch collision between Gambhir and Afridi, who blamed each other for the run-in.

After the relative lull in the first two matches, the third India-Pakistan ODI saw some sparks flying in the Green Park Stadium with Gautam Gambhir and Shahid Afridi being the main protagonists.

HT Image

It all started with a mid-pitch collision with both the players holding each other responsible for the run-in.

Gambhir straight drove Shahid Afridi for a boundary after which the duo were seen engaged in a war of words. As could be made out from reading their lips, expletives were exchanges between the batsman and the bowler. Gambhir took a single to change ends but there was no let up in the verbal duel.

In fact it got worse as a furious Gambhir headed straight to Afridi to give him a piece of his mind, resulting in a eyeball-to-eyeball encounter, which was eventually snapped by umpire Ian Gould's intervention.

Gould took Gambhir aside and told him to control his emotion, while Afridi too was told to mind his business by the umpire at the end of the over.

Incidentally, Gambhir also had a brief altercation with Sohail Tanvir who made a gesture at the left-hander after a fluffed shot.