Punjab Kings (PBKS) skipper Shreyas Iyer expressed frustration with his team’s bowling and fielding after failing to defend a target of 211 against Delhi Capitals (DC) in Dharamsala on Monday (May 11).
The loss marked PBKS’ fourth consecutive in the ongoing IPL season. They are currently holding fourth spot on the points table with 13 points from 11 matches.
Speaking during the post-match presentation, Shreyas stated that 210/5 was "absolutely" enough, even suggesting it was 30 runs more than par given the seaming conditions and variable bounce on the Dharamsala pitch.
"(Where it went wrong) I won't beat around the bush; I'll just say fielding and bowling again," Iyer said.
“(Was 210 good enough?) Absolutely, I feel that it was 30 runs more on this wicket considering how the ball was seaming and there was variable bounce,” he added.
Despite the seam-friendly conditions, Shreyas Iyer admitted there was a "thought" to bring in premier leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, but he ultimately stuck with pace, believing precise execution from his seamers would have secured the win.
“(So was there was a thought in your mind, maybe get an over of Chahal in between?) There was absolutely a thought in my mind, but the way ball was seaming and the way it was helping seamers, I think if we would have executed our line and length precisely, we could have been able to extract wickets, but unfortunately again, we didn't,” he stated.
The PBKS captain defended the team's decision to continue bowling "hard length" to the batter rather than trying out yorkers in the final overs.
“(Did you think at the end there about yorkers or was it still bowling into the surface?) Still into the surface. I always say that hard length, short of hard length is the best ball, especially when a new batsman is coming in. It's not easy to hit because if you keep repeating those balls, at least one, there's one ball, there's a chance of, you know, mis-hitting and you can get a wicket. We've been short of planning,” he concluded.
Coming to the match, PBKS suffered a five-wicket defeat at the hands of DC. Asked to bat first, Priyansh Arya (56 off 33) and Prabhsimran Singh (18) provided PBKS with a flying start, sharing 78 runs off just 41 balls for the opening wicket.
Following their departure, Shreyas Iyer (59 off 36) and Cooper Connolly (38 off 27) took responsibility to carry the innings forward as the hosts posted a formidable 210/5 on the board.
In response, the Capitals slipped to 74/4 but skipper Axar Patel (56 off 30) and David Miller (51 off 28) resurrected the chase before Ashutosh Sharma (24 off 10) and Madhav Tiwari (18* off 8) completed the task, finishing on 216/7 in just 19 overs.
