It was a Tuesday - and by Hardik Pandya's standards, just another Tuesday as well. On a pitch spitting steep tennis-ball bounce and seam movement, where Darwin would have realised how brutally it tested batters for survival, Pandya wielded his willow like King Arthur's Excalibur, lifting himself to another planet. Six fours and four sixes at a spellbinding strike rate of 210 in an unbeaten 59 on a challenging surface...That was not brilliance...that was savage brilliance.

Back in the side and back with a bang - Ravi Shastri raved, summing up Pandya's explosive, jaw-dropping batting that catapulted India to a 101-run victory over South Africa in the first T20I at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack. The new, untested and difficult red soil strip troubled other batters, but Pandya treated it like a flat Rajkot wicket. The second-highest individual score of the match was less than half of his power-packed 59. It felt like a different strip. Just another Tuesday.

Pandya's match-defining knock underlined what India had been missing in white-ball cricket over the past couple of months, when he was rendered hors de combat by a quadriceps injury. "At 48 for 3, and then from there getting to 175... the way Hardik batted," skipper Suryakumar Yadav wondered. "At first, we thought we'd get to 160, but then 175 was unbelievable."

India, perhaps, would have won even with 120 on the board. So tricky was the surface. The South African batters were mere sitting ducks to the Indian bowlers on the wicket - pacers and spinners alike. They were all out for 74 in 12.3 overs.

"Well, he's a six-hitter - but he's also calm. And I think identifying the right balls to attack... that comes with a lot of experience. As soon as the ball was in his areas of strength, he put a proper swing on it - no half measures. Most of the time when Hardik hits it, he's never tentative. There's clarity in his thinking, and there's clarity in his execution. It was an outstanding innings," Ashwell Prince, the South Africa batting coach, analysed Pandya's approach on the night.

Life in the middle was not easy but Pandya ratcheted up his A-game. He unleashed his power with two sixes off Keshav Maharaj in the space of three deliveries to kick-start his innings, but the savagery was not reserved for the spinner alone. He was just as brutal against the pacers - Anrich Nortje and Lutho Sipamla - even if not quite as severe on Marco Jansen.

What stood out on the night was his off-side play. Two flat-batted hits over mid-off signalled a welcome expansion of his repertoire, which had long been marked by on-side strokes - through and over long-on, mid-wicket, and square leg. He exhibited his growing mastery of the off-side play. There was also a striking upper cut off Nortje to bring up his fifty and it sent the crowd to its feet.

"I had to back my shots. At the same point of time, I realised that the wicket had a bit of spice. You had to be a little gutsy, and it was more about timing the ball, not trying to break the ball. I was very satisfied with the way I was batting," Pandya said of the breathtaking innings. He was the obvious choice for the Player of the Match award.

Pandya has been out of action for two months and he showed single-minded focus in his rehabilitation at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. "I don't make a big deal about the hard work that goes behind it, but at the same time, these last 50 days, being away from your loved ones, spending time at the NCA, making sure everything is covered. It's very satisfying when you come here and the results follow," he said, throwing light on how he came out of the quadriceps injury he suffered before the final of the Asia Cup in September.

After his batting pyrotechnics, he came out to bowl two overs of medium pace and claimed the wicket of the dangerous David Miller. Pandya the priceless all-rounder was on full display. "Look at all the all-rounders in world cricket now. Does England have a back-up for Ben Stokes? No. In one-day or even Test cricket, there is no back-up for Ravindra Jadeja. It is the same with Hardik Pandya.

"He can command a spot in the top five on his batting alone. He could also be one of the top three seamers in any team if he was just a bowler. The point is, to be that kind of all-rounder, you must earn your place with your batting and also with your bowling. There is no other player like Hardik Pandya in the Indian team," Sanjay Bangar, a former India coach, told the broadcaster explaining the value that Pandya brings to the team.

It was the kind of performance that only he could deliver, standing head and shoulders above the rest in tough situations and in difficult conditions. India would need him in such form and rhythm over the next couple of months, when the World Cup will be upon us.