New Chandigarh, April 20 Punjab Kings captain has asked his middle order batters to step up and advised them to ‘take the bull by the horns’ after his side failed to set a big total and were handed a seven-wicket defeat at the hands of Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Sunday.
Punjab were off to a flying start in the powerplay courtesy of openers Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya but the incoming batters failed to capitalise in the middle overs with spinners Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma both claiming two wickets each to restrict them to 157/6.
“If you see the majority of the batsmen, they love to go from ball one. We are not able to capitalise on the starts we are getting. The wicket is getting slower and slower. Even in the middle phase we thought we could take on the bowlers.
“Credit to Virat and the boys. We keep talking about adapting to the wicket. Few of the other middle-order batsmen need to step up, need to take the bull by the horns,” said Iyer in the post-match interview.
With a target of 158 on the board, who else would take the reins of the game other than chasemaster Virat Kohli. The veteran batter anchored the innings scoring an unbeaten 73 off 54 deliveries while Devdutt Padikkal’s 61 off 35 balls kept the scoreboard ticking for the visitors and ultimately secured the victory.
Iyer has failed to cross the 10-run mark in all four games at their home venue, the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, and the batter acknowledged the need to be free-flowing in his game.
"I'm in a great mind space. Just that I need to cross ten runs. I just need to be free-flowing as well. We've got six days of break, so it's important we go back to the drawing board. It's important to assess our body as well,” he added.
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