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HOBART - Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting farewelled the New Zealand team with a verbal spray on Thursday after the tourists accused gloveman Brad Haddin of deliberately running on the pitch.
Ponting and his opposite Daniel Vettori were involved in a heated mid-pitch discussion in the 40th over of yesterday's Chappell-Hadlee Trophy match here, after several New Zealanders thought Haddin was pushing the laws of the game.
"They just had a go at (Brad Haddin) for running on the wicket. It was about the third ball he faced, he turned one off a spinner and took a couple of steps down the track," Ponting said.
"It was as if it was some sort of preconceived plan of ours to run down the wicket because we were batting first.
"It's quite often that the New Zealanders will point the finger with those little things in the game towards us, as if we've thought about it and planned it.
"I was a bit disappointed to hear some of that stuff and I just returned a little bit back to them."
Vettori was not about to get into a slanging match with Ponting but he felt it was fair to raise the issue.
"It was just guys running on wickets and you always question umpires about those sorts of things," Vettori said.
"There was a bit of banter about who does what, and you go from there. It was nothing drastic."
Australia won the match by 114 runs to claim the series 2-0.
- NZPA
