India needed six runs off three balls. Left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz, after giving one run in the first three balls of the over, went shortish. The ball did not move much and Hardik Pandya sat back and smashed it over long-on for a flat maximum. Rohit Sharma and co won the match by five wickets. 

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India chased down Pakistan’s 148-run target with two balls to spare. Pandya was unbeaten on 33 off 17 balls with the help of four boundaries and one six. 

Watch India’s winning moment:

The Men in Blue needed 21 runs off the last two overs when Harris Rauf was handed the ball. Pandya smashed three boundaries in the over to reduce the equation to seven needed in six. Ravindra Jadeja, who partnered the 28-year-old in a fifty-plus stand, was dismissed on the first ball of the last over. He made 35 runs in 29 balls. Dinesh Karthik, who walked in to bat with five deliveries remaining, remained not out on one. 

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Pakistan rode on a 19-run last wicket stand to post 147 runs against India in the first innings. Pandya picked three wickets and Bhuvneshwar Kumar came back with four. All dismissals were affected by pacer – a first for India in T20Is. 

Defending a sub-par total, Pakistan’s debutant Naseem Shah bowled impressively. The 19-year-old got the wicket of KL Rahul on his second delivery of the game. He later dismissed a dangerous-looking Suryakumar Yadav. 

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Pandya walked in to bat when India were 89/4.

“In a chase like this, you always plan over-by-over. I always knew that there is one young bowler and also one left-arm spinner. We only needed 7 off the last over but even if we needed 15, I’d have fancied myself. I know the bowler is under more pressure than me in the 20th over while bowling to me. I try to keep things simple. It’s not my ego. Just the confidence I have,” Hardik Pandya said after the match.

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“In bowling, it’s important to assess the situations and use your weapons. For me, bowling short and the hard lengths have been my strengths. It’s about using them well and asking the right questions to make the batters commit a mistake,” he added on his bowling performance.