Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper Shreyas Iyer on Monday (18th April) talked about the loss his side suffered against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Match 30 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 in Mumbai. He also praised Jos Buttler for his heroics.
In what was a nail-biting thriller, KKR suffered a disappointing 7-run loss at the hands of RR and registered their third defeat on the trot. Bowling first didn’t do any justice to them as Buttler made a mockery of their bowlers and smashed them all over the park to notch up his second hundred of the season.
The likes of Devdutt Padikkal (24), Sanju Samson (38) and Shimron Hetymer (26*) also contributed with the bat and helped RR post the highest score of the season so far of 217 runs. For KKR, Sunil Narine was the pick of the bowlers and returned with the figures of 2/21.
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Chasing the target, KKR promoted Sunil Narine up the order but the move remained untested as the all-rounder was run-out on the very first delivery of the innings. Aaron Finch then played a fiery knock of 58 runs in just 28 balls to make up for the run-out and took his side off the flyer.
After his wicket, skipper Iyer took the onus of taking his team home. He did play a sensational knock of 85 runs off 51 balls but fell during the fag end of the innings. Yuzvendra Chahal took four wickets in the 17th over, including a hat-trick to shift the game towards his side.
Umesh Yadav then raised the hopes of KKR fans with his cameo but he couldn’t hold his nerves in the final over as RR bundled out KKR for 210 in 19.4 overs.
Speaking at the post-match presentation, Shreyas Iyer admitted that after the wicket of Finch, they slowed down a bit. He also talked about the team’s batting plan.
“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.
"My plan was to bat through the end, the opposite batsman had to take it on from ball one. The matchup Rana had was with Chahal. He did not time that and it happens,” Shreyas Iyer said.
Iyer lauded ‘classy’ batter Buttler for his ton and said had they got him out early, it could’ve been a different situation.
"He [Buttler] started a bit slow and after that, he just went off. The way he manoeuvres the ball, he is a classy batsman. Kudos to the way he batted. If we had got him out early, the scoreboard would’ve looked very different. Dew didn’t play a big role tonight. Amazing wicket to bat on. Unfortunately, Brabourne hasn’t been great for us,” he said.
Iyer was hopeful about KKR’s comeback. Talking about his innings, he said that he wanted to set an example for his team that they can chase any target
“Hopefully we will come back hard in the coming games. 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.
KKR will next face Gujarat Titans (GT) on Saturday (23rd April) in Mumbai.
(ANI inputs)
