Every individual in our game is a match winner – Shreyas Iyer

After much back and forth and an exciting thriller that went through intense wax and wanes, Team India rode on a late surge featuring impressive knocks from Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir and Nitish Kumar Reddy to turn the tide and eventually walk away with the bragging rights of the game in the second half of the contest.

The Indian captain, Shreyas Iyer had a bit of a rough day with the bat but was happy with his team’s victory against the Kiwis. Speaking at the post-match presentation, Iyer opened up on how his players performed under pressure. He also heaped individual praise on Dhir, who has been in terrific form recently.

Speaking on the win and the collective contribution from his teammates, Iyer said, “Yes, absolutely. I feel that every individual in our game is a match winner, and today we saw the example of that. Like, honestly speaking, when we lost wickets, consecutive wickets especially, we thought that the game was going away from us. But Tilak and Reddy, they showed immense character, and also a great cameo by Naman Dhir.”

Lauding Dhir, Iyer stated, “We saw him in a couple of games back home against West Indies. He’s a phenomenal bowler as well, and once you get both the parts covered in terms of batting and bowling, I think he brings in a lot of character, and also when you see him move around in the field, he basically, he’s a comprehensive player.”

Explaining the challenge posed by the Kiwi spin duo of Mitchell Santner and Michael Bracewell, Iyer said, “I think we played a lot of dot balls initially, and that basically piled up the run rate as well, and also when we went in, we wanted to actually cruise, but they bowled amazing, especially Bracewell and Santner, the way they controlled the game in the middle. It wasn’t easy to strike the ball, but I think if we would have picked up the gaps and tried to find boundaries, we could have easily cruised. But unfortunate. You know, it happens. Just another day, and I’m sure that we’ll bounce back pretty strong.”

He concluded by talking about India’s impressive fielding, stating, “I think that was the message passed on to each and every player in the team, that you got to anticipate every ball that is coming to you, and just believe that you’re going to give singles, and just see to it that you’re running into the ball so that, you know, the opponents, they think twice about running twos.”