Delhi Capitals (DC) skipper Shreyas Iyer urged his teammates to play with freedom and not with survival mindset after the team coped a crushing 59-run defeat at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Abu Dhabi on Saturday (October 24).
After piling up 194/6 on the board, KKR restricted DC to 135/9 as leg-spinner Varun Chakravarthy (5-20) and speedster Pat Cummins (3-17) ran through the opposition’s batting line-up.
It was a listless batting performance from Delhi. Except for Iyer (47 off 38 balls), none of them in the line-up managed to touch the 30-run mark.
"We need to be strong in our mind and play with freedom, not have a survival mind-set," Iyer said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
"...we could've put more pressure on them and we could've gone more attacking but the way they played in between especially Sunil Narine coming and changing the momentum towards them.
"I think that was the changing point and also we could've bowled in perfect areas, we couldn't execute our plans," he added.
Iyer also rued losing early wickets while chasing a daunting target.
"I feel it's really important that you get off to an amazing start when you are chasing a total in excess of 190, need 50 runs at least in the first six overs. Losing two wickets put a lot of pressure on the batsmen coming behind but you can't give that as a reason.
He said that the loss has come at the right time and there are several lessons to be taken from the game.
"We are disappointed with the loss but I'm glad it's happening at this point of time because there is a lot of learning from this game and when you go back and do your homework again. It's important that you come up with a fresh mind and see to it that your work is done precisely," Iyer remarked.
(With PTI inputs)
