Krunal Pandya starred with both bat and ball as the Lucknow Super Giants beat the Sunrisers Hyderabad by 5 wickets, when the two teams met for the Indian Premier League clash at the Ekana Sports City Stadium in Lucknow on Friday.
The 32-year-old dismissed both of SRH’s openers Anmolpreet Singh and Mayank Agarwal while also bowling out skipper Aiden Markram for a first-ball duck. He picked up the three wickets at the cost of just 18 runs in his four overs, helping the hosts restrict Hyderabad to a total of 121 for 8.
In response, Pandya came out to bat in the sixth over with LSG at 45/2 and scored a solid 34 off 23 in an innings that had four boundaries and one six.
“It was a very good day at the office,” he said at the post-match presentation where he was given the player of the match award.
“At this level you have to earn everything. Whether its a run, wicket or a dot-ball, everything is hard-earned. Everything was special today.”
Pandya also spoke about being clear about his role.
“Overall, this year I’m in a good headspace, I have much more clarity about how I want to go about my game, whether its bat or ball. Once you have clarity, everything just falls into place. I’m someone who is very process driven, and I don’t think that much about the result. It’s coming out really well,” he added.
Pandya, who played five One-Day Internationals and 19 T20s for the national team, explained that he had taken a step back to work specifically on developing his skills further.
“Last 4-5 months I took a break from cricket, I wasn’t playing. I just wanted to work on my skills, especially bowling. I was just playing white-ball format and in the last 2-3 years I just kept going wider and wider. I just wanted to work on my action. I wanted to get tall, get that turn and the arm ball going as well. Whatever I did in the last 3-4 months is coming out very well.”
It’s all started to come together for him, along with the role of batting in the middle order in the LSG lineup.
“I’m trying to recollect my first few years of IPL where I was batting at No 4 consistently for Mumbai (Indians), and then in the last three years for MI when I was batting there my role completely changed – I was batting at No 7,” he added, later dedicating the award to his wife for being a source of support.
“I’m trying to find that rhythm and consistency about how I want to play at that number. Just having that clarity helps you to go out there and execute your skills.”
With the win, LSG are now on top of the IPL table with two wins out of three matches, although they have played more matches then the rest of the nine teams. They next play Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 10.
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