Jos Buttler revealed the England captaincy brought out his emotional side during the three-run victory over Pakistan in the second Twenty20 International in Dubai.
The 25-year-old, standing in for the rested Eoin Morgan, led his side to an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series in a dramatic first game in charge.
Buttler contributed 33 with the bat as England posted 172 for eight, before his captaincy credentials were put to the test in the field.
He was required to keep his calm at the start and end of Pakistan's chase after England, in the form of Liam Plunkett and Adil Rashid, had fought back.
The designated hosts had struggled to build on an opening stand of 51 in five overs between Ahmed Shehzad and Rafatullah Mohmand until Shahid Afridi strode to the crease with 53 runs needed from 20 deliveries.
The Pakistan skipper gave Buttler a headache by cracking 24 from eight balls, but England held their nerve at the death.
“It was pretty emotional and a bit stressful at times, especially as captain, but a fantastic performance by everyone,” the wicketkeeper-batsman told ecb.co.uk.
“By our own admission we were not as good as we know we can be, yet with the bat to get up to a score of 170 and then to defend it even though we didn't do everything quite as we would have liked to was the making of a good team.
“It is a bit different, especially as wicketkeeper, trying to run around and talk to your bowlers, there is a lot of sign language.
“It is a lot more emotional I think. You tend to rise highs and lows of the game a bit more. I really enjoyed it and feel a lot better for the experience.”
Buttler put faith in Chris Woakes to see out the match with 11 needed, despite the seamer leaking 22 from his penultimate over, with Afridi clearing the ropes three times.
His decision was justified, though, with Woakes conceding just seven to secure a series-clinching win for England, their fifth triumph in a row in the United Arab Emirates.
Sensational game of cricket! Proper entertainment that. Best ones to win & the series win to go with it! #PakvsEng #ODI #squeekybum
— David Willey (@david_willey) November 27, 2015
“I was just backing him to do what he did,” Buttler said. “I was asking him what he thought was best and I just had to trust him.
“He is a very good bowler and showed great character to come back and bowl that final over and get us over the line.”
Buttler displayed his captaincy skills as early as the fifth over of Pakistan's chase, introducing spinner Stephen Parry in a bid to break the rapid opening partnership.
That moved also paid off as Parry took pace off the ball and Buttler was on hand to stump an advancing Shehzad.
He said: “I saw them do it in their innings as well. They started to get going and I thought changing the pace up was a good thing. I played a lot of county cricket with Pazza and that wicket was the start of what we really needed.”
Rested for the first T20 yesterday, Buttler returned to the side at the ground where he smashed England's fastest one-day international ton last week.
Now that was SERIOUS fun. What a game to win the T20 series. Quality team performance yet again #youbeautttttttttyyyyyyyyy
— Jason Roy (@JasonRoy20) November 27, 2015
He struck a four and three sixes at the Dubai International Stadium this time around, although he admitted he struggled for fluency.
“I couldn't get going as I would have liked to start with but you have just got to hang in and trust yourself that you will get one in the end,” he said.
“I was a little bit disappointed that myself, Vincey or Sam Billings could not go on and really play that match-defining innings. But we did enough today.
“It was obviously a week ago now so I have been riding that wave for long enough. It was time to move on. Today was really great and it really is an honour to captain England. A great day.
“It was brilliant. Knowing we had the chance to win the series was fantastic. Knowing that that group of guys had won the one-day series and now we have won the Twenty20s, we want to go out on a high and win it 3-0.”