‘It was necessary for me to show intent’ – Shreyas Iyer on his half-century with the Duleep Trophy

In the upcoming Duleep Trophy 2024, India D skipper Shreyas Iyer was pleased with his purposeful half-century against India C. The great batter faltered in the first inning but came back to score 54 runs off 44 deliveries in the second. In the second innings, he counterattacked and hammered nine boundaries and one six to turn the tide back in India D’s favour.

After the game, Iyer discussed his knock and said that the bowlers for India C were doing a fantastic job of keeping the ball in the appropriate places and that the ball was seaming as well. He stated that the attack was carried out with the purpose of making the most of his intent and scoring highly.

“I had to demonstrate my intent because their bowlers were seaming the ball and delivering beautifully in the appropriate spots. All I wanted to do was go on the offensive and try to bring in a respectable number of people. The ball started to stop a little bit as it grew older.

In the post-match presentation, Shreyas Iyer stated, “Yeah, I would take that fifty any day. I wanted to capitalise on my intent.”

Iyer’s fifty-four and Devdutt Padikkal’s sixty-six did not matter, though, as India C triumphed by a margin of four wickets. India D put 236 on the board to set a goal of 233 runs in the third innings. Ruturaj Gaikwad and Sai Sudharsan, the opening batsmen for India C, set the tone well. Aryan Juyal’s 47 and Rajat Patidar’s 44 practically completed the task for the team. Abhishek Porel added 35* later to wrap things up.

Iyer expressed his satisfaction with Saransh Jain’s performance, taking four wickets in the second innings, but acknowledged that the pitch did not present much opportunity for spinners after the game.

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“There was no spin for the bowlers, and the pitch did not give much. Saransh had excellent bowling areas. The surface was mostly dead except for a few places made by the fast bowlers where the ball spun from outside the off-stump. Iyer hoped that we would take this as a lesson and move forward.