Hardik Pandya, who continued his good run with the bat to help India seal the T20I series against Australia in Sydney on Sunday, said he had been focusing on finishing games during the off-season earlier this year.
Hardik, whose unbeaten 22-ball 42 helped India chase down a target of 195, said, “The biggest goal during the lockdown was to focus on finishing games when it matters the most. That was my plan and, that was the learning throughout. I had a chat with my brother Krunal about this always.”
On a day when close to 400 runs were scored, T. Natarajan finished with two for 20. Hardik said he thought that the left-arm pacer would have been the ‘player-of-the-match.’
“He got us the break and the runs he saved proved to be the difference. For the kind of start Australia had, I felt that they were short by 10-15 runs and knew we could win if we batted well,” said Hardik.
“I am so impressed with him [Natarajan] because he keeps it very simple and doesn’t complicate things. If you tell him ‘go bowl a yorker or a wide slower one’, he goes and does that. It is a learning for a lot of people that if you keep it simple, it can benefit you,” he said.
