Remembering Shreyas Iyer's stunning 93* vs KKR for DC IPL 2018 

On Monday, April 29, Shreyas Iyer will come out for the toss, wearing the purple and blue jersey. He will lead the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) against the Delhi Capitals (DC) at Eden Gardens in a crucial IPL 2024 encounter.

Six years back, Iyer, still coming up the ranks, was part of the Delhi side (known as the Delhi Daredevils back then). A poor campaign until then propelled the management to remove Gautam Gambhir as captain. With nothing to lose, the owners turned towards Iyer to take over the mantle from Gambhir, who is currently the mentor of the KKR side.

Shreyas Iyer enjoyed his promotion with a breathtaking 93* off just 40 balls against a star-studded KKR side at the Arun Jaitley Stadium (previously known as Feroz Shah Kotla).

Asked to bat first, Delhi were off to a solid start, thanks to Prithvi Shaw and Colin Munro's 59-run opening stand. Iyer walked out to bat in the seventh over and batted through to lead his side from the front. The right-hander shared some crucial partnerships with Prithvi Shaw and Glenn Maxwell to help his side post 219/4 in 20 overs.

Iyer came down hard in the final two overs, aggregating 40 runs to help Delhi cross the 200-run mark. The right-hander was especially brutal against Shivam Mavi, carting him 29 runs in the last over of the innings. He smashed 61 off the last 18 balls of his innings, which included eight towering sixes. Iyer also had luck beside him with Robin Uthappa and Nitish Rana dropping catches at the boundary.

Overall, Shreyas Iyer smashed 10 sixes and three boundaries for his unbeaten 93, scoring at a rate of 232.50. It was his third consecutive half-century in that season.

Iyer didn't spare anyone as he used the extra pace of Mitchell Johnson to hit a six over the third-man boundary, slog-swept Kuldeep Yadav over midwicket, and smacked Piyush Chawla into the top tear. What was more intriguing was that almost 50 percent of his run came in 'V', i.e. between the long off and long on fielders.

The Mumbai-born cricketer also broke a slew of records with that knock. It was the highest runs scored by a captain on debut. He also crossed the 1000 runs-mark in the IPL and took only 39 innings to achieve the feat. It was the sixth fastest to 1000 IPL runs at that time.

Shreyas Iyer's maverick knock helped Delhi register their second win of the season. KKR could only muster 164/9 in their 20 overs, thus, losing the match by 55 runs. Amit Mishra starred with the ball, returning with 2/23 from four overs.

Delhi finished at the bottom of the table that year, managing only five wins from 14 games, with four of those coming under Shreyas Iyer's leadership.

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How has Shreyas Iyer fared with the bat in IPL 2024?

The KKR skipper returned to the cash-rich league after missing the last edition entirely due to a back injury. Nitish Rana led the team in his absence and KKR also endured a horrid campaign, finishing seventh in the table with six wins and eight defeats from 14 games.

Shreyas Iyer spent several months at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru to regain full fitness and returned to action in IPL 2024. However, his comeback hasn't been memorable with the bat yet.

The 29-year-old has accumulated only 218 runs in eight games at an average of 36.33 and a strike rate of 136.25, including a fifty. He will look to hit the straps as the Knight Riders aim to lift their third trophy this season.

The Kolkata-based franchise is currently placed second in the points table after the Rajasthan Royals. KKR have 10 points in their kitty from eight games, winning five and losing three of those matches.

They will next be seen in action when they take on the Delhi Capitals (DC) on Monday, April 29, at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata.