Punjab Kings skipper Shreyas Iyer told his troops to stay humble after their historic 16-run win against Kolkata Knight Riders at Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday. Opting to bat first, Punjab's batting debacle bundled them to 111 in 15.3 overs as Harshit Rana snared three scalps while Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine bagged two wickets apiece. In reply, Yuzvendra Chahal returned with career-best tournament figures of 4-28, while pacer Marco Jansen picked three scalps to script a thrilling win for the home side. It was the lowest successfully defended total in IPL's history.
"It is hard to express in words. I was just backing my instincts. I saw the ball turn a bit, and asked Yuzi to control his breathing a bit. We needed to be attacking and the right players were in the right places. It is tough to talk right now and such wins make it special," Iyer said in the post-match presentation.
"I personally felt, when I went out to bat, I faced two balls - one stayed low and one hit the bottom of the bat, people were finding it difficult to sweep. There was variable bounce in the wicket, we got a decent total to be honest, looking at the win of 16 runs. The bounce was not consistent. We had this at the back of our mind, and we asked the bowlers to keep this in mind. And they executed it.
"Two wickets in two overs that gave us that kind of momentum and the two batters came in and took the momentum towards them. When we saw Yuzi came in and turn the ball, our hopes and expectations were higher and I wanted the field to be attacking and right in front of their face so that they make mistakes and the tide turned towards us. It is important we stay humble and not get over-hyped with this win. It is important we take all the positives from this game and try to execute from ball one in the next game," he added.
With eight points in six matches, Punjab Kings have moved to the fourth spot while KKR are reeling at sixth place with six points in seven games.
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