It was a nice toss to lose: Iyer

Shreyas Iyer made a memorable debut as the Indian Premier League captain and said he felt no pressure leading the side.

Iyer built on the solid start given by the openers and with a 40-ball unbeaten 93 took Daredevils past the 200-run mark against Kolkata Knight Riders. The 23-year-old called it a team effort and said it was a good toss for them to lose.

“It is an amazing feeling winning my first game as a skipper. All of us contributed for this win. It's just that we got a good start. Everyone was aware of what they had to do and contributed really well. It wasn't an individual game. We wanted to bowl first. So, it was a nice toss to lose. It gave the batsman the freedom to express themselves,” Iyer said after the team’s 55-run victory over KKR.

“There was no pressure of leading the side, to be honest. But leading Daredevils for the first time, that too, in the middle of the tournament, was really amazing.”

Iyer conceded Daredevils thrive on their pacers and complimented their performance. “We know that our strength is pace. The way they are bowling in the Power Play and outside it is really amazing.”

Knight Riders skipper Dinesh Karthik admitted they played poorly in all three departments, especially the fielding. “I’m very disappointed with the result. It literally looks like we did not turn up for the match. If the dew settles in, chasing becomes easy. We believed there would be dew towards the end of the game but today there wasn’t any, so obviously chasing becomes that much more harder

“If you don’t get wickets in the Power Play, then they’re always going hard. That helped them go at a similar momentum throughout the game. I think we really need to wake up in the fielding department especially. We need to improve our fielding standard and that should turn around the things for us.”

Karthik praised the Daredevils’ batting. “They batted really well. They played some really good shots. We could’ve bowled a bit better but a lot of credit goes to the way they batted.”