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Punjab Kings (PBKS) captain Shreyas Iyer experienced extremes within a few days. After not being able to defend a total as high as 245 against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), Punjab Kings (PBKS) managed to defend lowest total in Indian Premier League (IPL) history against Kolkata Knight Riders. Iyer has admitted that his captaincy is all about instincts. On April 15, he felt that Yuzvendra Chahal is the key seeing how much the ball turned in the first innings. He trusted him to disrupt the folow of the game and the leg-spinner answered the captain's call by taking four wickets for 12 runs in his first three overs. After a sensational win at their homeground, Iyer revealed that he asked Chahal to control his breathing and attack KKR batters.
"It is hard to express in words. I was just backing my instincts. I saw the ball turn a bit, asked Yuzi to control his breathing as much as possible. We needed to be attacking and the right players were in the right places. It is tough to talk right now and such wins make it special," Iyer said in the post-match presentation.
Iyer's attacking mindset
Iyer said that he realised that the surface is tough to bat on when he was at the crease. He asked the bowlers to keep the conditions in mind. He credited Chahal for getting two consecutive wickets to shift the momentum in PBKS' favour.
"I personally felt, when I went out to bat, I faced two balls - one stayed low and one hit the bottom of the bat, people were finding it difficult to sweep. There was variable bounce in the wicket, we got a decent total to be honest, looking at the win of 16 runs. The bounce was not consistent. We had this at the back of our mind and we asked the bowlers to keep this in mind. And they executed it," Iyer said.
"Two wickets in two overs that gave us that kind of momentum and the two batters came in and took the momentum towards them. When we saw Yuzi came in and turn the ball, our hopes and expectations were higher and I wanted the field to be attacking and right in front of their face so that they make mistakes and the tide turned towards us," he added.
Iyer wants to 'stay humble'
After a record-breaking win against his former franchise KKR, Iyer wants to take positives from the low-scoring game. He urged his side to stay humble as well.
"It is important we stay humble and not get over-hyped with this win. It is important we take all the positives from this game and try to execute from ball one in the next game," he concluded.
This is PBKS' fourth win from six games. It helped them rise to the fourth position on the points table. Their next match is away from home against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on April 18.
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