Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer said his team was confused by the pitch after their eight-wicket loss to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL’s first qualifier. Still, he stayed positive, saying they lost a battle but not the war. After RCB rolled them for just 101 runs in 14.1 overs and chased down the target in 10, Shreyas noted that they have another chance to reach the finals in Qualifier 2 against the winner of the Eliminator between Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians.
He mentioned that poor shot choices against RCB’s bowlers led to their collapse, but he didn’t second guess his decisions. I’m not doubting my decisions, he said. We need to improve our batting, especially on this kind of pitch. There has been variable bounce in every game we’ve played here.
Shreyas didn’t want to make excuses for the defeat, emphasizing the need to perform better regardless of the conditions. He acknowledged the urgency to fix their batting issues before their next match, saying, Not a day to forget, but we need to regroup. We lost way too many wickets early on. We need to study what went wrong.
He was clear that their planning was solid, but execution on the field fell short. Can’t blame the bowlers; defending a low total is tough, he added.