Shreyas Iyer opens up after Duleep Trophy half-century

India D captain Shreyas Iyer was happy with his intent-filled half-century against India C in the ongoing Duleep Trophy 2024. In the first innings, the star batter flopped, but in the second, he bounced back to score 54 runs off 44 deliveries. He launched a counter-attack in the second innings, hitting nine boundaries and one six to bring back the momentum in India D’s favour.

Speaking about his knock after the game, Iyer noted that India C’s bowlers were doing a good job in terms of maintaining the right areas and added that the ball was seaming as well. He mentioned that the intention behind the attack was to capitalize on his intent and put up a good score on the board.

“It was necessary for me to show intent because their bowlers were bowling great, in the right areas and the ball was seaming as well. I just wanted to take the attack and see if we could get a decent total on board. When the ball got old, it was stopping a bit. I wanted to capitalize on my intent, but ya, I would take that fifty any day,” Iyer said in the post-match presentation.

Meanwhile, Iyer’s 54 and Devdutt Padikkal’s 56 went in vain as India C won the match by four wickets. In the third innings, India D posted 236 on board and set up a target of 233 runs. India C openers Ruturaj Gaikwad and Sai Sudharsan gave a good start, which was followed by Aryan Juyal’s 47 and Rajat Patidar’s 44, which almost got the job done for the team. Later, Abhishek Porel made 35* to finish things off.

After the game, Iyer noted that the pitch had not much to offer to the spinners but was happy with Saransh Jain’s performance, who picked up four wickets in the second innings.

“The pitch did not offer much, there was no spin for the bowlers. Saransh bowled in great areas. There were few patches on the pitch created by the fast bowlers where the ball spun from outside of the off-stump, other than that it was quite dead. Hopefully, we learn from this and move on,” Iyer said.