Shreyas Iyer: SRH outplayed us in all the three departments

Last updated on February 17th, 2023 at 12:03 pm

SunRisers Hyderabad got the better of Shreyas Iyer led Delhi Capital defeating them by 15-runs. Iyer said that the team from Hyderabad outplayed the Capitals in all three departments and deserved credit for it.

SRH lost the toss and was handed over the opportunity to bat first which proved beneficial for them as they pinned down a decent total of 162 on the scoreboard. The condition of the pitch was docile for the capitals where the batting order was struggling to get the ball on the bat for bigger shots and that led Hyderabad to defend their score.

Apart from the pitch conditions, what worked in the David Warner led team was Rashid Khan., who also took home the Man of the Match Trophy. The leg-pinner emerged as the star performer for his team and led the team to victory. Khan bowled beautifully to sustain just 14 runs of four overs while taking three wickets including wickets of Sikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant.

During his post match presentation, the bowler said, “I bowled quicker today, when I started and bowled my first ball, I realized it. You need two three balls to know what the right pace is. In these conditions you need to bowl back of a length to the batsmen.”

It will be interesting to see how the spell turns out for Rashid Khan after his weak show against Kolkata Knight Riders in his first match where he could not take a single wicket.

While talking about the performance of the Delhi Capitals, coach Rickey Ponting said that the team needs to work on their skills. “I think it was obvious who we needed to target and that was Abhishek Sharma, but he snuck away from us, Rashid Khan was able to take the wicket of Iyer in the eighth over which meant Abhishek was able to get away with his over next, we really targeted his 3rd and 4th over, we did not get many runs from his 3rd over.

Ponting also credited Warner and Bairstow for properly utilising and understanding the pitch and playing accordingly. As Ponting stressed on the impotence of taking doubles in a ground as big as the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, Iyer too accepted that the team did not capitalise on the doubles and did not make use of many opportunities. He said that they knew that boundaries are big here and taking doubles will be the key but it did not work for the team.

Read: US President Donald Trump earned $2.3 million from licensing deals in India: Report