Dubai: Graeme Swann produced his career-best figures in Twenty20 cricket during the first match of the series against Pakistan at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Thursday night.
But his effort of three for 13 went in vain as Pakistan won by eight runs.
Swann revealed he was unaware the performance were his best until he was told after the game.
"I'm very happy with that," he said. "The ball came out of the hand nicely.
"It's always nice to get [Shahid] Afridi out early, as he's a very dangerous player and we were delighted with how it went in the field. It's just disappointing it wasn't part of a winning performance."
Talking about the rising importance of spin in Twenty20, Swann added: "It's no surprise that spinners do well in T20, in Dubai especially.
Always a chance
"These are fairly big boundaries and it's not easy for the batsmen to get after you. There's always a chance of catches in the deep. I always enjoy any game where spinners come to the fore and T20 is that game."
Swann said the defeat was part down to the inexperience of the England batsmen, part the way Pakistan bowled.
"They have world-class bowlers at the death and we didn't cope with that as well as we should have done," he said.
"Having said that, we got ourselves in a winning position and, nine times out of ten, we'd expect ourselves to cross the line. It was disappointing not to do that. We've got two games left in the series to make amends.
"We've just beaten these guys 4-0 in the one-day series so confidence is still sky high.
"I don't see any reason why we can't win the next two."
