Delhi clinched its second victory of IPL 2019 by defeating Kolkata Knight Riders on Saturday.
Delhi Capitals (DC) skipper Shreyas Iyer said that his side did not expect their IPL 2019 match on Saturday (March 30) to go to the Super Over. Delhi eventually won the game versus Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to earn their second victory of the tournament, but Iyer was hoping for an earlier finish to the proceedings in the 19th over of his team's run-chase.
KKR batted superbly to put up a stiff target of 186 on the board, but DC looked set to chase it all down before wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav bowled an excellent last over to tie the game. During the super-over phase, Delhi scored 10 runs and later defended that with Kagiso Rabada giving away just seven despite an in-form Andre Russell facing him.
"Definitely a long day at the office," said Iyer at the post-match presentation ceremony. "We didn’t expect it to go that deep, expected us to finish it with an over to spare. Credit must go to Kuldeep Yadav for that final over."
Delhi captain then lavished deserving praise over Rabada and said, "Kagiso and I had a chat before the super over and he told me that he would go for yorkers all through, first, second, third, every ball. It takes some special skill to execute that."
Actually, the home team could well have been much chasing less at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium if not for a rampaging Andre Russell, who again powerfully muscled the ball and pulled off an astonishing knock of 62 in just 28 balls.
"You can’t control Andre Russell when he gets going," Iyer acknowledged. "Even his mistimes go for sixes and even the bowlers find it tough to plan against him when things just don’t go to plan."
“All our batters decided that whoever gets going should take the side home, and Prithvi Shaw did that for us. Hopefully, he can continue doing it for us.” He said all the players were taking the responsibility."
"I am really happy with myself as well because I refused to let the pressure come onto me after a few dots."
But it was young opening batsman Prithvi Shaw who got adjudged "Player-of-the-Match" for his stellar innings of 99 from 55 balls and he said, "I thought I missed the opportunity to finish the game. Rather than scoring one run, I was looking to hit it big because I didn’t want the game to get this close. But the boys finished it off really well in the super over."
KKR captain Dinesh Karthik was left disappointed by the outcome of the match. He said, "I think it was a great game, both teams fought pretty well. It went to the Super over and they came out on top."
"I think Prasidh has been bowling consistently for us at the death, it was a straight forward decision to make. And I think he bowled really well. He has been bowling the tough overs, so we need to back him. It was a topsy-turvy kinda game."
(Inputs from PTI)