I Had Butterflies In My Stomach From 17th Over: KKR Skipper Shreyas Iyer – News18

Kolkata, Mar 23: Kolkata Knight Riders captain Shreyas Iyer on Saturday admitted his wobbling nerves when Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Heinrich Klassen was going ballistic in pursuit of a stiff 209-run goal in an IPL match right here on Saturday.

Chasing a stiff 209, Klassen (63 off 29b) single-handedly introduced SRH inside sniffing distance of an inconceivable win earlier than finally falling brief by 4 runs.

“Right from the 17th over, I had butterflies in the stomach! To be honest, I thought anything can happen in the last over,” Iyer mentioned.

SRH wanted 13 runs off the final over and odds had been of their favour with a pink-scorching Klassen and Shahbaz Ahmed on the crease.

But Iyer determined to throw the ball to younger Harshit Rana and he didn’t disappoint both. Rana dismissed each Klaasen and Ahmed to stifle SRH.

“Harshit was a bit nervous when he was coming to bowl (the last over). I told him, ‘Even if we lose, it’s fine’. I tried to calm him down as much as possible.

“(Sunil) Narine and (Andre) Russell have got a lot of experience. I am elated to see how Russell performed with bat and ball. Sunny (Narine) executed well.

“It is a luxury to have them in the team. Whenever you start with a win, it gives you motivation. There are areas we need to improve on as a team – fielding is one of them!” SRH skipper Pat Cummins mentioned he by no means thought they might come so shut whereas chasing an imposing 209 if not for Klassen’s terrific knock, who was ably supported by Ahmed (16 off 5).

“Close game in the end, wonderful game of cricket. Unfortunately, didn’t go our way. I thought for the most part, really happy with how we bowled,” he mentioned.

“It’s one of those games, goes one way or the other, amazing job by Klaas (Klaasen) and Shahbaz to get us back into the game and get us into that position. Who would have thought we’d get that close.

“Unfortunately, a little bit too much. In a game where we didn’t really pull it all together. We still almost competed against a very good side at their home venue, lots to be encouraged by, lot of good performers, a couple of points to work on also,” Cummins added.

The ace Australian pacer mentioned Andre Russell simply took the sport away from SRH together with his exploits with the bat.

Russell was at his damaging finest, smashing seven sixes and three fours enroute to his unbeaten 25-ball 64.

“Obviously, Dre Russ (Russell) at the end does what Dre Russ does, he’s pretty hard to contain. Overall, I thought we did a pretty good job,” he mentioned.

“You do your planning, you try to execute your best but a pretty tough guy to bowl to, played some good shots, couple of balls maybe we could have bowled a little bit differently but the toughest job in cricket is bowling at someone like that in the end.” PTI SSC UNG

.

(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – PTI)