Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Shreyas Iyer was all praise for his team's "outstanding mindset" during its 54-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad as the players had nothing to lose at this stage of the tournament.
KKR remained in play-off contention, albeit with a slim chance but what Iyer liked was that his team was able to bring their 'A' game to the fore.
"The mindset we came up in this game, it was outstanding. All the boys did the right things, played fearless cricket. Everything panned out really well," Iyer said after the match.
"We have nothing to lose now. We haven't played our A-game yet, that's what I spoke today before the game," Iyer said.
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On the gameplan front, Iyer said that at the back-end, they wanted Andre Rusell (49 no and 3/22) to take as much strike as possible.
"We were going over-by-over. The plan was to give Russell the strike as much as possible. We knew Washi (Washington Sundar) had one over left, that was the over we were going to target. It worked out pretty well, hope it works out well in the final game as well," the skipper said.
"It was an over-par total. Sunil (Narine) and Varun (Chakravarthy) stepped-up, they bowled smart and got crucial wickets. We never allowed them to get under our skins, kudos to that."
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Skipper "clarifies" his CEO "comment"
It was a day of back-tracking and after CSK batter Ambati Rayudu went back on his IPL retirement plans, it was time for KKR captain to predictably take back his words after inadvertently spelling out that CEO Venky Mysore is involved in team selection.
Questions were raised after KKR played 13 different combinations in 13 games so far, some forced due to injuries but a few just for the heck of it.
It was known that KKR management have had a word with Iyer and told him to clarify as his comments reflected poorly on the all-powerful Mysore.
"When I took the CEO's name, I wanted to say that he's there to console the players who've been sitting out. It's tough for us as well while picking teams," Iyer said.
We lacked momentum, says Williamson
This year's IPL has been a lesson for him, admitted skipper Kane Williamson as he was at pains to explain how SRH have now managed to lose five games on the trot and are almost out of play-off contentions.
"The game teaches us lessons and I am learning it right now," Williamson said on his own wretched form.
"We have been struggling with creating momentum in the last few games. Sundar stepped up in the last over. Using our resources a little early didn't work for us today.
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"We wanted to get off to a good start. There were glimpses and signs but wasn't to be. The run rate got up and we were not able to pull it back."
