"Right from the 17th over, I had butterflies in the stomach!": Shreyas Iyer

Shreyas Iyer. Pic/PTI

Kolkata Knight Riders' captain Shreyas Iyer during their IPL 2024 match against Sunrisers Hyderabad said that he had butterflies in his stomach from the 17th over. Chasing a target of 209 runs, Heinrich Klassen single-handedly smashed 63 runs in an attempt to take SRH home. The orange army fell short of four runs and Kolkata won the match despite Klassen's heroics.

"Right from the 17th over, I had butterflies in the stomach! To be honest, I thought anything can happen in the last over," Shreyas Iyer said.

SRH needed 13 runs off the last over and odds were in their favour with a red-hot Klassen and Shahbaz Ahmed at the crease. But Iyer decided to throw the ball to young Harshit Rana and he didn't disappoint either. Rana dismissed both Klaasen and Ahmed to stifle SRH.

Also Read: IPL 2024: Dinesh Karthik pleased to get crucial runs despite early fall of wickets

"Harshit was a bit nervous when he was coming to bowl (the last over). I told him, 'Even if we lose, it's fine'. I tried to calm him down as much as possible. "(Sunil) Narine and (Andre) Russell have got a lot of experience. I am elated to see how Russell performed with bat and ball. Sunny (Narine) executed well. "It is a luxury to have them in the team. Whenever you start with a win, it gives you motivation. There are areas we need to improve on as a team - fielding is one of them!", Shreyas Iyer added.

Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins said he never expected to reach so close while chasing 209 runs. But Klassen's knock made it seemed possible and Shahbaz Ahmed also shouldered him well by scoring 16 runs.

"Close game in the end, wonderful game of cricket. Unfortunately, didn't go our way. I thought for the most part, really happy with how we bowled," he said. "It's one of those games, goes one way or the other, amazing job by Klaas (Klaasen) and Shahbaz to get us back into the game and get us into that position. Who would have thought we'd get that close. "Unfortunately, a little bit too much. In a game where we didn't really pull it all together. We still almost competed against a very good side at their home venue, lots to be encouraged by, lot of good performers, a couple of points to work on also," Cummins added.

Cummins admitted that Russell's fiery knock took the game away from SRH. He was at his absolute best as he smashed 7 sixes and 3 fours.

"Obviously, Dre Russ (Russell) at the end does what Dre Russ does, he's pretty hard to contain. Overall, I thought we did a pretty good job," he said. "You do your planning, you try to execute your best but a pretty tough guy to bowl to, played some good shots, couple of balls maybe we could have bowled a little bit differently but the toughest job in cricket is bowling at someone like that in the end."

(With PTI Inputs)