Hardik Pandya revels in his ‘best performance’ in T20Is

It was a match worthy of being a series decider. England first put up a solid 198/9 in their 20 overs. And India then chased it down with eight balls in hand, suggesting that even 215 or so was within their reach.

Pandya returned 4/38 in that England innings. That’s a good performance anyway, but looks even better when you take his first over away from the equation. Against a rampaging Jason Roy and Jos Buttler, Pandya gave away 4, 4, 6, 6, 1 and 1 – that’s 22 – in his first over.

He was taken off after that, and brought back only after Roy and Buttler were back in the hut. And then, it was 4/16 in three overs, the wickets those of Eoin Morgan, Alex Hales, Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow. Wickets that kept England to under 200.

“When I went for 22 … see this T20 format, it's a funny game. You need to back yourself and come and bowl your best balls. After getting hit for 22, I was still normal. Krunal, my elder brother, told me, ‘It’s OK, you can do it’. The game is like that. If you come and bowl in the right lengths, if you take wickets, on this kind of wicket and ground, eventually you’ll stop runs,” said Pandya after the game.

“My focus was that I just bowl different balls and keep it simple rather than just go for yorkers, because the shortest boundary was the straight. So if I missed my yorker, it would go … In shorter formats, when I bowl I think as a batsman. Generally when I bowl, batsmen are going hard in this format. So I try to think as a batsman and I try to outplay them.”

In the second half, he had to think like a batsman, because India were 151/3 in 14.5 overs when he had to walk out to join Sharma. Pandya scored 33* in 14 balls, with four fours and two sixes, to hasten the end for England.

“When I was younger I batted at three. So, for me, any situation I play according to the situation. Doesn’t matter – 13 balls, 30-odd, 25 balls 25 … depending on the situation, I play accordingly. And eventually, when you do that, you end up doing well,” said Pandya.

That made it a fine all-round performance from Pandya, the bowling figures his best in international cricket to date and the 33* his highest in T20Is.

“But I would have loved to restrict them … I gave 38,” said Pandya of the performance. “In the first over, I wanted to give less runs. But yeah, I can call it the best performance. But it doesn’t matter. In the end, if the team wins, even if I give 50 runs and don’t take a wicket, if the team wins I am more than happy. I don’t play for my own performance.

“I’m learning. I’m always learning from the game. I make sure I keep on learning from my mistakes, which is helping my game. We have a fantastic supporting staff and leaders, who are giving us immense confidence to go and express ourselves. And we are just going out and enjoying the game rather than thinking what’s going to happen.

“We are just playing our best cricket and when you do that, you end up doing well.”