IPL 2018, DD vs KKR: Hits and Misses

#1 Hit: Shreyas Iyer

On captaincy debut, Shreyas Iyer struck a magnificent 93.

Shreyas Iyer is one of the players whose performances in this IPL has gone under the radar. After a quiet start to the tournament, Iyer has just come into his own. Yes, he hasn’t converted his fifties into match-winning knocks but he has been DD’s best batsman in the tournament so far.

After hitting back-to-back fifties in the last two games, the new DD skipper made it three in a row as he struck a magnificent 93 in just 40 deliveries. He came out to bat at No. 3 after DD had got a good start. The 23-year-old started slowly as he made 7 in 9 balls before hitting a six off Kuldeep Yadav to get going. He was content in giving the strike to young Prithvi Shaw who was striking it really well.

But once the 18-year-old was dismissed, Iyer changed gears and went after the bowling. He smashed the KKR bowlers all around the Feroz Shah Kotla as he struck 3 fours and 10 sixes in his 40-ball knock. He took Shivam Mavi to the cleaners as he struck 4 sixes and a four in the final over of the innings to help DD score 219. Off his first 25 deliveries, Iyer scored 37 runs but in his next 15 balls, he struck 8 sixes and scored 56 runs.

It was his first game as captain and he showed that the pressure (or burden) of captaincy will not affect his batting.