“Took his captaincy to another level”: Irfan Pathan praises KKR captain Shreyas after the team defeats SRH
Ahmedabad (Gujarat), May 22, India: Irfan Pathan, a former cricketer for India, praised Shreyas Iyer, the captain of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), saying that he elevated his leadership during the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
The Kolkata-based team defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by eight wickets in Tuesday’s Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 Qualifier 1 match at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Shreyas played an undefeated inning in the game, scoring 58 runs off of 24 balls with a strike average of 241.67. He hit five fours and four sixes in the face of the SRH bowlers.
Irfan remarked on his official X account that the captain of the KKR team has been excellent throughout the 17th IPL season.
“Shreyas Iyer’s adjustments over the season have been excellent. However, he elevated his leadership to a new level today,” Irfan said on X.
After reviewing the game, Sunrisers Hyderabad decided to take the bat first. Following an amazing Mitchell Starc powerplay session that reduced SRH to 39/4, a 62-run partnership between Heinrich Klaasen (32 in 21 balls, three fours, and a six) and Rahul Tripathi (55 in 35 balls) enabled SRH to reach the 100-run milestone. However, the Sunrisers continued to get wickets as long as their bowlers could keep KKR under pressure. Mitchell Starc, the captain, made a late comeback, scoring 30 runs in 24 balls with two fours and two sixes to lead SRH to a respectable 159 in 19.3 overs.
With a stint of 3/34 in four overs, Starc was KKR’s best bowler and once again proved to be a force at important times. In four overs, Varun Chakravarthy, too, scored 2/26. Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, and Vaibhav Arora each claimed a wicket.
A 44-run partnership between openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz (23 in 14 balls, with two fours and two sixes) and Sunil Narine (21 in 16 balls, with four boundaries) set up KKR for a comfortable lead in the run-chase of 160 runs. SRH’s bowling and run-chase were humiliated by attacking half-centuries from captain Shreyas Iyer (58* in 24 balls, with five fours and four sixes) and Venkatesh Iyer (51* in 28 balls, with five fours and four sixes), who won the match by eight wickets with 38 balls remaining.
With this victory, KKR has secured a straight berth in the championship game. Meanwhile, SRH will play in Qualifier 2 against the winner of Wednesday’s elimination game between the Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for one more chance to win the title.
