Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Shreyas Iyer put on a valiant fight as his team went down fighting against Rajasthan Royals in a high-scoring thriller on Monday. Iyer scored 85 runs off 51 balls but couldn’t take the Knight Riders over the line at the Brabourne Stadium.

He got out in the 17th over of the KKR innings to Yuzvendra Chahal, who went on to pick up a hat-trick. Shreyas Iyer tried to connect the ball which was fired in by the veteran leg-spinner and was trapped LBW. The 28-year-old cricketer from Mumbai was visibly upset with the way he got out.

Meanwhile, he had a verbal disagreement with head coach Brendon McCullum in the KKR dugout while he was going back to the pavilion. Shreyas Iyer looked quite animated as he said something to the dugout before walking away. The camera also panned out towards McCullum, who didn’t look happy either.

Watch the clip here:

https://twitter.com/SlipDiving/status/1516125922419961856?s=20&t=N0uRT1_bGzrnH5DNl9uVsg

Meanwhile, Yuzvendra Chahal dismissed Shivam Mavi and Pat Cummins off the next two deliveries to complete the hat-trick. e eventually finished with figures of 5/40, which is also his first five-wicket haul in the IPL. It was the 21st hat-trick in the IPL and fifth by a Rajasthan Royals bowler. Ajit Chandila, Pravin Tambe, Shane Watson and Shreyas Gopal did it for RR before Yuzvendra Chahal.

However, it was far from over as Umesh Yadav launched a couple of big hits and threatened to take the game away from Rajasthan Royals. But debutant Obed McCoy bowled an exceptional 20th over to defend 217 posted by the batters, riding on Jos Buttler’s second century in IPL 2022.

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After Aaron Finch’s dismissal, we slowed down a bit – Shreyas Iyer

Meanwhile, KKR were on song for the run chase after Finch and Iyer had put on a show after losing Sunil Narine on the first ball of the innings. But once the Aussie cricketer got out after a well-made 58, Rajasthan managed to pull things back with a couple of wickets. Shreyas Iyer feels that period made the difference in the game.

“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,” Shreyas said at the post-match presentation ceremony. 

With three wins in seven matches, Kolkata are now in the sixth position in the points table.

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