Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Shreyas Iyer had put up a valiant fight as his team went down fighting against Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Monday. Iyer scored 85 runs off 51 balls but couldn’t take the Knight Riders over the line while chasing 218 runs at the Brabourne Stadium.
Chasing 218 runs set by the Royals, Aaron Finch and Iyer put on a strong fight after losing Sunil Narine in the first ball of the innings. They added 107 runs for the second wicket before Rajasthan managed to break the alliance. Sanju Samson and Co. managed to pull the brakes with a couple of economical overs.
Nitish Rana holed out Jos Buttler off Yuzvendra Chahal while Ravichandran Ashwin knocked off Andre Russell with a magical delivery. With runs hard to come by, Shreyas Iyer was getting frustrated. During the last ball of the 16th over, Venkatesh Iyer tapped one ball to the extra cover and set for a run.
However, Shreyas Iyer was keen to take two runs but Venkatesh denied. The KKR captain was seen losing calm and venting his anger at the all-rounder abusing him. Venkatesh also presented his case and the duo sorted it out in the next over.
Watch the clip here:
https://twitter.com/NitaliJain/status/1516110672882401280?s=20&t=l12soVju1SIUjKGk0n91bg
Meanwhile, Yuzvendra Chahal picked up a hat-trick in the next over to rock Kolkata Knight Riders’ run chase. However, Umesh Yadav played a short cameo to keep KKR in the hunt but debutant Obed McCoy bowled exceptionally well in the final to seal the game in Rajasthan’s favour.
“There is a lot of pressure and I love pressure” – Shreyas Iyer
While it looked like Kolkata would fall short by a massive margin, the two-time IPL winners staged an outstanding show to almost chase down the total. They were in the game until the 20th over before Obed McCoy won’t it for the Royals.
Shreyas Iyer pointed out that his mindset was to set an example that if they can do it, we can do the same as well. Speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony, he said, “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.”
With three wins in seven matches, Kolkata are now in the sixth position in the points table.
Get the latest cricket news here and like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram for more such updates.