Venkatesh Iyer picked two crucial wickets as KKR restricted the Delhi Capitals to a score of just 127/9 on a sluggish Sharjah surface.
He did CA, he did MBA, now he is scoring runs, getting his team off to explosive starts and he is now taking wickets with the ball as well. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have found their crisis man in Venkatesh Iyer in the second half of the 2021 edition of the Indian Premier League.
Iyer, who impressed one and all with the bat opening the innings with knocks of 41* (27) against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and 53 (30) against Mumbai Indians now did the job with the ball for the men in purple against the Delhi Capitals getting two crucial wickets in form of Shimron Hetmyer and Axar Patel, which went a long way in his side restricting them to a low score of 127/9 on a sluggish surface.
Delhi Capitals made one change to their line-up with Steve Smith opening the batting in place of Prithvi Shaw, alongside Shikhar Dhawan. Both batters got their team to a steady start hitting a couple of boundaries but once Lockie Ferguson dismissed Dhawan, the scoring rate went down.
KKR introduced spinners from the sixth over and both Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine spun a web around DC batters, which they found very difficult to get out from. Narine dismissed Shreyas Iyer cheaply. SMith and Pant stitched a partnership but they couldn't get going.
Smith after a few boundaries perished attempting a hoick against Ferguson and then Iyer worked his magic removing hard-hitter Hetmyer playing a big role in putting breaks on their scoring rate. DC kept losing wickets regularly and despite skipper Rishabh Pant staying till the final over, scoring 39 runs off 36 balls, they could only score 127 runs in their 20 overs.
Iyer, Ferguson and Narine picked two wickets each.
Fans heaped praise on Iyer saying, he can bat, bowl and even tally your balance sheets, saying he is the real all-rounder.
Here are some of the reactions:
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 "Venkatesh Iyer, Shimron Hetmyer")
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