IPL 2019 | Delhi Capitals will learn and come back positively from SRH defeat, says Shreyas Iyer
Shreyas Iyer termed his team Delhi Capitals’ loss against the Sunrisers Hyderabad, as another lesson learnt by the team. He hoped that the team would come back strong after a trot of poor batting performances, but did not fail to credit the bowlers for putting up a great fight in the second innings.
Delhi Capitals were put into bat by Sunrisers Hyderabad in Thursday’s match, but their batting lineup floundered for the third consecutive time, as they could only score 129, and eventually ended up on the losing side. Even in the previous games, they gave away an easy chase against Kolkata Knight Riders, to take the match to the super over, and won it from there. In the next match, seven wickets collapsed for eight runs and they lost another match from a winning situation.
This time again, the story was no different, as they failed to accelerate in the powerplay, on a slow and dry Kotla pitch, only to fizzle out in the rest of the innings. The skipper Shreyas Iyer was clearly disappointed with the manner of losses, but was positive about a comeback in the future games.
“Last two games have been the same. Tough wicket and since they bowled first, they had a bit of an idea how to go about it. We didn’t bat well. It’s another learning, we should come back positively,” Iyer said, at the post match-press, reported PTI.
The captain shared that the team was looking at a total of of around 140 or 150, but they ended up scoring 129. The openers Shikhar Dhawan and Prithi Shaw were dismissed for 12 and 11, respectively. All rounder Rahul Tewatia was sent up the order at number five, but he, along with Rishabh Pant and Colin Ingram failed to perform as per expectations, as three of them were wrapped for five runs each.
The skipper played a decent knock of 43 in 41 deliveries, Chris Morris’ 17 off 15, and Axar Patel’s 23 off 13 in the end, were the only other notable knocks. Iyer hoped that the three spin bowlers, Axar Patel, Sandeep Lamichhane and Rahul Tewatia will make up for the batsmen’s mistakes, but they could only manage one wicket apiece.
“After the first time-out, we thought 140-150 would have been a great total. And we had three spinners so we could have pounced on them. Unfortunately, we were short. I needed a little bit of support from someone at the other end from someone in the top 4. But it’s a good lesson for us,” explained the 24 year old.
Among the positives for the Ricky Ponting coached side, they were able to take the match until the 19th over, despite being taken apart in the powerplay for 62 runs. Axar Patel and Rahul Tewatia were miserly as they gave away runs at an economy of 4.50 and 3.33 respectively.
“The way we came back in the second innings was appreciable. The bowlers came up and that is good to see,” said the right handed batsman.
Sunrisers Hyderabad opening batsman Jonny Bairstow smashed a blazing 48 off 28 deliveries, in a low scoring encounter, and was awarded the Man of the Match. But, even the in form batsman acknowledged the slow nature of the pitch at Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi.
“There was probably a little less bounce. It was a good toss to win, so we were able to see how to play on wickets like that. Probably the first such pitch we’ve come across this season,” stated the 29 year old.
The England wicket-keeper batsman has been in sublime form off late. Currently, he is placed second in the top run scorer list with 246 runs in four matches, only bettered by his opening partner, David Warner, who has scored 264. He was clearly delighted with his performance in his debut season in the Indian Premier League.
“I am really pleased with the start, just going to try and keep going. We have three games in quick succession now and hopefully, we keep playing the same brand of cricket,” he expressed.
