Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) gave Rajasthan Royals (RR) a run for their money but eventually succumbed to some brilliant bowling by Yuzvendra Chahal in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match in Mumbai on Monday. Leading the charge for the Knight Riders was their skipper Shreyas Iyer, who took his team close with a 51-ball-85. Following their loss, Iyer reiterated that he expected more from the batters in the team on what he called an 'amazing wicket to bat on.'
"My plan was to bat through the end, the opposite batter had to take it on from ball one. Dew didn't play a big role tonight. Amazing wicket to bat on. Unfortunately, Brabourne hasn't been great for us. Hopefully, we will come back hard in the coming games," Iyer said at the post-match press conference.
However, the 27-year-old heaped praise on Australia's limited-overs captain Aaron Finch, who hit 58 runs in 28 balls to give his side a fighting chance, "I think from the start we got, we really were going well according to the run-rate. Finchy was good but once he was out, we slowed down a bit. We lacked a bit over there, but it's a part of the game. Unfortunately, we couldn't click."
Chasing RR's 217, KKR were all-out for 210 but Iyer along with Finch did make a match of it before things, setting up a 107-run partnership, before Prasidh Krishna broke the deadlock against his former team. When asked if Chahal's dismissal of Nitish Rana was the turning point in the game, Iyer believed that the leg-spinner's better head-to-head record against the Delhi southpaw went in his favour, "The matchup Rana had was with Chahal. He did not time that and it happens."
Meanwhile, for the KKR skipper, the pressure of the scoreboard tends to bring out the best in him. "There is a lot of pressure and I love pressure. I just wanted to set an example, doesn't matter whatever score they get. If they can get it, I can get it as well. That's how I was thinking," he said after the match.
KKR remain stuck on sixth after their loss while RR moved up to second, having a better net run rate than Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on the points table.
