Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Shreyas Iyer was delighted with the collective team effort after their comprehensive eight-wicket win against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the first qualifier at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
After SRH won the toss, Mitchell Starc was able to prove his mettle. Starc, whose performances were questioned a lot during the league stage, showed why he is a big-match bowler.
The left-arm seamer cleaned up his compatriot Travis Head with an inswing delivery and then also dismissed Nitish Reddy and Shahbaz Ahmed. Vaibhav Arora also got the big wicket of Abhishek Sharma as SRH were reduced to 45-4 after the Powerplay overs.
Furthermore, Varun Chakaravarthy returned with impressive figures of 2-26 in his quota of four overs whereas Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, and Harshit Rana picked one wicket each. Thus, SRH was bundled out for a below-par score of 159.
Shreyas Iyer said in the post-match presentation, “I think the way every bowler stood up to this occasion, the way they came in and took wickets, that was imperative. The attitude and approach of all bowlers was to take wickets and they did. When you have a variety in the bowling line-up, it’s mesmerising. They have been true in terms of their work ethics, hopefully, we keep performing.”
Iyer hailed the collective team effort and was delighted with the convincing performance.
The KKR captain added, “Elated by the performance, the responsibility was important, we stood up for each other, extremely happy with the performances. The rejuvenation was important for us. When you travel so much. It’s important to stay in the present. Today was the day we had to maximise, we did it and that’s what we thrive on.”
Meanwhile, Shreyas Iyer scored an unbeaten knock of 58 runs off 24 balls whereas Venkatesh Iyer scored 51 off 28 balls to help their team win comprehensively with 38 balls to spare.
KKR will be in action in the all-important final on Sunday.
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