Hardik Pandya had messaged six people who are close to him, including his wife Nataša Stanković, that he be putting up a show to remember against Pakistan, revealed the self-proclaimed “showman” after he produced another terrific all-rounder performance against Pakistan in India’s Super 12 opener at the T20 World Cup in Melbourne on Sunday.
While Virat Kohli and Arshdeep Singh are hogging most of the limelight after India’s thrilling last-ball win by 4 wickets, it was Hardik Pandya who played the supporting role to the two mentioned stalwarts.
Hardik Pandya produced another superb all-round performance
First, he took three wickets with the ball and then scored 40 runs off 37 balls while reviving India’s innings along with Kohli.
Speaking after the game with broadcasters Star Sports, Pandya oozed confidence in his abilities, saying that he’d had an inkling that he will do well against Pakistan, as he did in the Asia Cup game a few weeks ago.
“I think I am a showman. I will not come every day but when I come I’ll put on a show. That’s why I messaged my wife and a few closest people and I said, I don’t know, I just had a gut feeling that tonight is gonna be a special night. I messaged the six of them and said, tonight whatever I am going to do, I’ll do for you guys. That about sums it up,” Hardik said.
Arshdeep Singh gave India a rollicking start by dismissing the two best Pakistani batters – Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan. But Ifthikar Ahmed and Shan Masood rebuilt the innings before both played attacking shots and collected boundaries.
Pandya came and struck thrice with his hard and short lengths dismissing Shadab Khan, Haider Ali, and Mohammad Nawaz, three batters who all have abilities to hit the ball long.
Chasing 160, India was reeling at 31/4 when Pandya joined Kohli in the middle. The pair remained conservative for a while and India was 54/4 after 11 overs before both of them launched Nawaz for three sixes, and then collected a boundary each in the next three overs.
The equation was down to 48 required off 18 balls when Kohli brought out his best and clattered Shaheen for 3 fours and Rauf for 2 sixes before India won the match in the dramatic last over.
