Indian skipper Shreyas Iyer showered praise on Japanese players after the visitors registered a thrilling two-run win against the hosts at the Sano International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday. Iyer said the attitude and approach of the Japanese players was impeccable.
After electing to bat first, India could only post 32 runs on the board on a slow and low pitch. Shreyas Iyer top-scored for the team with 16 runs off 12 balls, including one boundary. Interestingly, India could score two boundaries as Japanese spinners made life difficult for the visiting batters.
Japan in response was on course to get over the line as they needed eight runs to win off the final over. However, Axar Patel was able to keep his calm and conceded only five runs in the last over.
Shreyas Iyer said in the post-match presentation, “You see, I always keep saying that five overs game, it can go anywhere. It doesn’t matter how good a team you are, because the oppositions are also competitive, and the attitude and approach the Japanese team showed today was impeccable, and kudos to them. The approach was outstanding. So I’m sure that they are on the right track right now, and they’ve got a couple more matches against Afghanistan and Nepal. They would be brilliant. And for us it was a great practice knowing about the wicket as well.”
Iyer admitted it was a difficult pitch to bat on and he thought of rotating the strike after India lost three early wickets.
Iyer concluded, “Well, certainly turning square. Honestly speaking, it was a very difficult wicket to bat on. We saw the openers as well, who are used to scoring runs consistently, not able to gauge the pace of the spin, and I decided when I got in that it’s important that I need to take singles and doubles and rotate the strike as much as possible. I also interacted with the batsmen who came in with me, but it was difficult to do that as well. But honestly speaking, I just decided that I would be playing on the merit of the ball and see, plan accordingly. If the ball is turning and holding a bit, I’ll just use the pace of the ball and hold myself at the back and see to it that I manage for singles and doubles. So that worked out pretty well.”
India’s T20I team will next play in the Asian Games.
