England white-ball captain Jos Buttler defied all odds as the willed Rajasthan Royals (RR) to a thrilling win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on April 16 with his seventh ton in Indian Premier League (IPL) career. After the two-wicket at loss, KKR captain Shreyas Iyer admitted that he never thought that the team will be in this situation.
“I would second that actually, emotions were a roller coaster, certainly didn’t think we will get into this situation,” Iyer told the broadcasters.
Like Iyer has said before in the season, he reiterated that cricket is a ‘funny game’. However, he did not blame his bowlers for their failure to defend a mammoth total.
“It’s a funny game at the end of the day, he was striking the ball cleanly and timing them so well, have to take it on the chin and move on. I mean at this point of time you see that you bowl your best deliveries, a little bit hit or miss and you are sent out of the ground, it’s good that it happened now rather than it happening in the later stages of the tournament, good learning for us,” he said.
Idea behind Varun bowling last over
With nine runs to defend in the final over, Iyer handed the ball to Varun Chakaravarthy. Iyer explained why he gave him the last over against a free-flowing Buttler.
“Since he was striking it so well, I thought let’s take pace off the ball and gave it to Chakaravarthy and it’s high pressure when you have five fielders inside the circle, you basically don’t have idea where to bowl,” he explained.
Iyer lauds Narine
The skipper lauded veteran Caribbean all-rounder Sunil Narine who smashed his maiden IPL ton. Narine became only the third KKR batter to score an IPL century.
“He is a great asset to the team and he is showing it every game, he is that kind of player who capitalizes on each and every moment. I'm glad that he is a part of our team,” he added.
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