Shreyas Iyer produced a captain’s innings to keep Punjab Kings in contention for the playoffs, assistant coach Brad Haddin said after Saturday’s seven-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants in the Indian Premier League.
Iyer struck an unbeaten 101, his maiden IPL century, smashing 11 fours and five sixes as Punjab chased down their target in their final league-stage match to end a six-game losing streak.
“In these matches you want your best players to stand up,” Haddin said.
“These are the matches you want to play where everything is on the line. The captain for the last couple of days had that look in his eye. He wanted to be the one that made the difference and turned things around and gave us an opportunity to play in the finals.”
“You’d go a long way to see a better innings and a better captain’s knock than that. He’s a tremendous leader of men. He reads the game well. The changing room follows him. He speaks with purpose.”
Punjab made a flying start to the season, winning six of their opening seven matches, but their form dipped in recent weeks.
They moved into fourth place in the standings with the victory but still require favourable results elsewhere on Sunday to secure a playoff berth.
“We just had to find some rhythm back in our game. There’s a lot of scenarios now that can play out,” Haddin added.
“It was important, we had to win the game. We had to play this game the way we did tonight under pressure to give ourselves an opportunity.”
