“I love taking on bowlers under pressure”: Shreyas Iyer on India’s win over Pakistan

Iyer's composed 56 off 67 provided the ideal support to Virat Kohli's unbeaten century as India comfortably chased down the 242-run target with over seven overs to spare on Sunday night. The victory has put Pakistan on the verge of elimination while bringing India closer to securing a semifinal spot.

Dubai: Giving a peek into his mindset when faced with high-pressure situations, India batter Shreyas Iyer has said that he likes to be aggressive to “steady the ship”, something that he demonstrated quite well in the Champions Trophy win over arch-foes Pakistan after making a sedate start.cyhampions

Iyer’s 56 off 67 was the perfect supporting act to Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 100 as India chased a 242-run target with more than seven overs to spare on Sunday night. The win has pushed Pakistan to the brink of elimination and taken India within touching distance of a semifinal berth.

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“I love to take on the bowlers when we are under pressure. And that is my mindset. If we take charge, if we gain the momentum towards us, then it is easy to steady the ship,” Iyer said in the post-match press conference.

“And from there on, the rest of the batsmen, when they come in, it becomes easy for them.” He expected India to take way less than the 42.3 overs that the side consumed for the six-wicket victory.

“I think we could have won a bit earlier, could have been a convincing win based on how the wicket was playing. It was initially coming on pretty well with the new ball and after that it was difficult to score runs when the ball got a bit old,” he said.

“But if we would have played more aggressively we would have won a bit earlier I felt,” he added.

Iyer, nonetheless, termed India’s as a “sweet” one because it came against a competitive team and involved warding off a lot of “external pressures.” “I haven’t played that many matches in Pakistan, so I don’t know exactly how it would have felt. But it’s a neutral venue and it’s a challenge for both the teams. But any victory against Pakistan is sweet because they are always competitive,” Iyer told reporters.

“It’s a challenge and there’s a lot of pressure externally as well. It was a lot of fun. It was my third game in Pakistan,” he added but did not elaborate what exactly he meant by external pressure.

Iyer, who formed a vital 114-run alliance with Kohli for the third wicket, lauded his senior colleague for making a fluent hundred. It was Kohli’s 51st ODI hundred, and he also completed 14,000 runs in the format during the course of the knock.

“I have never thought of Virat struggling for runs. He is always hungry for runs. I remember yesterday, he had come almost an hour before us for the practice session and he played a few balls and he was looking from outside,” the 30-year-old said.

“He looked as crisp as he looks all the time. So, I never feel that he is struggling for his runs,” he added.

No injury to Shami, Rohit

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The Mumbaikar also allayed injury concerns over skipper Rohit Sharma and veteran pacer Mohammed Shami. Both had to stay away from the field during the initial phase of the Pakistan’s innings.

“…I had a brief chat with them and both of them were quite comfortable with the way things progressed and yeah from my knowledge, I don’t think there is any issue,” he said.

‘Adapting is important’

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Iyer played a two-layered innings, in which he focused on singles early on before opening up to punish the Pakistan bowlers. He explained the rationale behind his approach.

“See, it is clear as sweeps and reverse sweeps cannot be played straightaway. But rotating the strike is going to be important because that puts a decent amount of pressure on the bowlers.

“They keep changing their line lengths. And once you keep taking singles, the bowlers are more under pressure and you can keep hitting the scoreboard from there on,” he added.

Iyer also lauded the Indian spinners for keeping Pakistan batters quiet in the middle overs.

“They bowled tremendously, especially in the middle phase where the ball was turning. As we know, even in the previous game when we played over here, the wicket is a bit slow.

“It’s spinner friendly and the way they have been bowling consistently over a period of time, I think the amalgamation of all three bowlers mixing up quite well, also the experience that they possess. I think that brings a lot of clarity in their bowling,” he said.