Bengaluru, Feb 12 (IANS): Centurion K.L. Rahul and Manish Pandey helped India reach 296/7, which was in the end not enough, against New Zealand in the third and final ODI in Mount Maunganui on Tuesday. But during their stay together at the crease, what came to the fore was the way the Karnataka pair conversed in Kannada on the field.

India lost the ODI by five wickets to succumb to a 0-3 series sweep after recording a 5-0 verdict in the T20Is. Rahul was in red hot form in both formats of the game while Pandey also did well in the T20s and the only ODI he played in place of Kedar Jadhav.

Rahul and Pandey shared a 107-run stand for the fifth wicket at a time India needed it the most.

But their conversation which had words like "Odi Odi Ba" (come running), "Bartheera" (will you come), "Beda Beda" (no no) and "Ba ba" (come) must have pleased the cricket buffs in Karnataka as it was clearly audible on the stump mic.

Rahul smashed 112 with as Pandey scored 42.