'I Looked Into His Eyes and Told Him...': How Shreyas Iyer Calmed Harshit Rana Before the All-important 20th Over

There was a bit of Bollywood in how Kolkata Knight Riders captain Shreyas Iyer inspired his young teammate Harshit Rana to hold his own against a charging Heinrich Klaasen who threatened to fire his team Sunrisers Hyderabad to a famous win at the Eden Gardens on Saturday night.

Klaasen nearly pulled off the win when he whittled down the requirement to 7 off five after pulling the first delivery of the 20th over, bowled by Rana, for a six.

The next five deliveries though belonged to the 22-year-old KKR pacer who removed Shahba Ahmed and then Klaasen to successfully defend 13 runs and help his team to a thrilling four-run win.

Iyer admitted to be nervous himself right from the 17th over itself when SRH began their late charge towards the target of 209.

“Right from the 17th over, I had butterflies in the stomach. To be honest, I thought anything can happen in the last over. They needed 13 runs and we didn’t have the most experience bowler” Iyer said at the post-match presentation.

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Iyer then revealed how he tried calming down the inexperienced Rana before the 20th over.

“Harshit was a bit nervous when he was coming to bowl (the last over). I looked into his eyes and I told him, ‘This is your moment buddy. Don’t think much about it. Even if we lose, it’s fine’. I tried to calm him down as much as possible,” said the KKR captain.

The star of the night though was KKR’s prized possession – Andre Russell who turned the clock back with a blistering half-century to lift them to the season’s first 200-plus total before taking two wickets as well.

“(Sunil) Narine and (Andre) Russell have got a lot of experience. They way Russell started, I am elated to see how he performed with bat and ball. Sunny (Narine) has been tremendous with the ball over the years. It is a luxury to have them in the team,” Iyer said.

The 29-year-old Iyer says the team will learn from this performance and improve on on the areas they were found lacking in especially fielding.

“Whenever you start with a win, it gives you motivation, learning. There are so many areas we need to improve on as a team – fielding is one of them,” Iyer said.