Venkatesh Iyer became the second centurion of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) in the match against Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Wankhede stadium on Sunday (April 16). Venkatesh struck a cracking 104 off 51 in the face of injury, however, his exploits went in vain as KKR were handed a five-wicket defeat at the hands of five-time champions.
In the post match presentation, Iyer rued KKR's loss and said that he would have been happier if results had fallen in his side's favour. Iyer became only the second batter after Brendon McCullum to smash a century for KKR in the IPL.
"Would have been happier if we would have finished on the winning note but nonetheless, pleased with my effort. That's the role given to me by the management and it's my job to repay them. Obviously, it was a very beautiful wicket to bat on. Once you score those 30-40 runs, it gets easy to score. Really happy to get a hundred," said Iyer.
Venkatesh made his IPL debut only in 2021, in the second half of the season which was held in the UAE. He showed his capabilities with both the bat and the ball in that season, proving his decision to make the switch from a cushy MBA job to a sport as unpredictable as cricket.
Talking about his batting, Iyer said that his intent was to unsettle MI bowlers. On his injury he added that once you're out there doing something for the team, then you forget all the pain.
"Their new ball bowlers are both swing bowlers and once you allow them to settle down, it gets difficult. So I just didn't want to let them settle. Once the swing goes away, it gets easier to play them. Once you're out there doing something for the team, you forget all the pain," Iyer added.
The Madhya Pradesh-based batter admitted that KKR were 15-20 runs short against MI. KKR piled up a total of 185/6. In reply, MI overhauled the target riding on Ishan Kishan's fifty and a quickfire knock from Suryakumar Yadav.
"The wicket was really nice and I was enjoying myself out there. In hindsight I think we did score 15-20 runs less, and the way MI were going, they could have scored it in another over but yeah, we were a little short," Iyer concluded.
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