India defeated Japan by a narrow margin of two runs in their rain-truncated one-off T20I match at the Sano International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday (September 22).
After posting 32/4 against a disciplined bowling effort by the Japanese spinners, the Men in Blue restricted the hosts to 30/3 in the five-overs-a-side contest. Washington Sundar returned with the bowling figures of 2/13 for India.
Earlier, Indian batters struggled against the turn and extra bounce, with only skipper Shreyas Iyer (16 off 12 balls) managing to reach double figures.
Shreyas, who earned the Player-of-the-Match award in the low-scoring fixture, spoke about the challenging pitch, where batters found it difficult to judge the pace of the spin.
Reflecting on his approach, the Indian captain said he adapted by focusing on rotating the strike with singles and doubles, playing purely on the merit of the ball, and using the bowler's pace rather than trying to force big shots.
“Well, certainly turning square. Honestly speaking, it was a very difficult wicket to bat on. We saw the openers as well, who are used to scoring runs consistently, not able to gauge the pace of the spin, and I decided when I got in that it's important that I need to take singles and doubles and rotate the strike as much as possible,” Iyer said after receiving the POTM award.
“I also interacted with the batsmen who came in with me, but it was difficult to do that as well. But honestly speaking, I just decided that I would be playing on the merit of the ball and see, plan accordingly. If the ball is turning and holding a bit, I'll just use the pace of the ball and hold myself at the back and see to it that I manage for singles and doubles. So that worked out pretty well,” he explained.
Shreyas Iyer highly praised the Japanese cricket team for their outstanding and competitive approach to the game. He noted that Japan is headed in the right direction and backed them to perform brilliantly in their upcoming matches against Afghanistan and Nepal.
Despite the challenge, Iyer felt the match served as excellent practice for India to understand the behavior of the wicket.
“You see, I always keep saying that five overs game, it can go anywhere. It doesn't matter how good a team you are, because the oppositions are also competitive, and the attitude and approach the Japanese team showed today was impeccable, and kudos to them. The approach was outstanding. So I'm sure that they are on the right track right now, and they've got a couple more matches against Afghanistan and Nepal. They would be brilliant. And for us it was a great practice knowing about the wicket as well,” he remarked.
