Kolkata Knight Riders’ captain Shreyas Iyer walks off the sector after dropping his wicket throughout the Indian Premier League cricket match match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad in Kolkata on March 23, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP
Kolkata Knight Riders captain Shreyas Iyer on March 23 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 in Kolkata.
Chasing a stiff 209, Klassen (63 off 29b) single-handedly introduced SRH inside sniffing distance of an inconceivable win earlier than finally falling quick 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 have been in their favour with a red-hot Klassen and Shahbaz Ahmed on the crease.
But Iyer determined to throw the ball to younger Harshit Rana and he did not 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 gotten a number of expertise. I’m elated to see how Russell carried out with bat and ball. Sunny (Narine) executed effectively.
“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 bit of bit an excessive amount of. In a sport the place we did not actually pull all of it collectively. We nonetheless virtually competed towards an excellent facet at their house venue, heaps to be inspired by, lot of excellent performers, a few factors to work on additionally,” Cummins added.
The ace Australian pacer said Andre Russell just took the game away from SRH with his exploits with the bat.
Russell was at his destructive best, smashing seven sixes and three fours enroute to his unbeaten 25-ball 64.
“Obviously, Dre Russ (Russell) on the finish does what Dre Russ does, he’s fairly onerous to comprise. Overall, I believed we did a reasonably good job,” he said.
“You do your planning, you attempt to execute your finest however a reasonably powerful man to bowl to, performed some good photographs, couple of balls possibly we may have bowled a bit of bit otherwise however the hardest job in cricket is bowling at somebody like that in the tip.”
