India’s flamboyant all-rounder Hardik Pandya played a crucial role in India registering another dominating win in the third and final T20I against England on Sunday. However, Hardik felt that the knock played by the Indian opener Rohit of 100*, in the run chase of 199, made the difference between the two teams. Sharma smashed an unbeaten century as India won by seven wickets and took the three-match series 2-1.
Rohit didn’t take long to get on to his own batting style in the third T20I and smashed 100* from 56 balls with 11 boundaries and five sixes to take India past the winning line. Talking about the knock, Pandya said, “Rohit was outstanding and played a fantastic hand. He won the game single-handedly for us. I haven’t seen anyone hit the ball as hard as Rohit. Not having two good games and then coming back to play such innings, that is special. It shows the confidence players have in this team, in themselves. It all comes down to the support staff. “
Pandy was phenomenal with his all-around role. He first picked up four wickets before conceding 38 runs. In the chase, he came ahead of MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina and smashed 33 runs in just 14 deliveries and helped the visitors to chase down the total with 8 balls to spare. Things could have been much worse for India as Hardik went for 22 runs in his first over.
WATCH – Hardik Pandya Scalps Two In An Over
Describing the comeback after the first over, Pandya said, “To be honest, I see the T20 format as a funny game. You need to back yourself and bowl your best balls. If you come and bowl the right lengths, and take wickets on this kind of pitch, eventually you will stop runs. My focus was to make sure that I bowled different balls rather than just bowling yorkers because bowling length was the key. With the shortest boundaries on the straight, I kind of mixed things.”
Pandya feels that this is the best learning curve in his cricketing career as he is learning from each and every game in recent times. He said, “I am learning. I am always learning in the game. I’ve made sure that I keep on learning from my mistakes. With every game, something or the other I am learning, which is helping my game. When I was young, I have batted at number three. So for me any situation I go in, I play according to that. It doesn’t matter if I hit 13-ball 30 or 25-ball 25, depending on the situation I play accordingly.”
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When asked if it was his best performance in the shortest format of the game, Hardik replied, “You can say so. We would have loved to restrict them for fewer runs. I gave 38 runs overall but in the first over I would have liked to give fewer runs. Maybe I can call it the best performance. In the end, if the team wins, even if I give 50 runs and don’t take wickets, I am more than happy.”
