Dubai [UAE], February 23 : Following his side's win over Pakistan in the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy, Indian batter Shreyas Iyer, who struck a half-century and a brilliant 114-run stand with star batter Virat Kohli, said that the latter never struggled for runs, rather he is hungry for them as reflected by his move to practice one hour earlier than usual before the team's practice leading up to the match.
Virat's memorable 82nd international ton, which saw him rewrite plenty of records, Shreyas Iyer's half-century, and fine spells from Kuldeep Yadav and Hardik Pandya helped India secure a win over Pakistan by six wickets at Dubai International Stadium in their ICC Champions Trophy fixture. The team now has one foot in the semifinals.
"I have never thought of Virat struggling for runs. It is just the mindset that he possesses over the years. He is always hungry for runs and I remember yesterday he had come almost an hour before us for the practice session He played few balls, and he was looking - from outside he looked as crisp as he looks all the time. So, I never feel that he's struggling for runs, to be honest," Iyer said in post-match presentation.
Iyer said that the match could have been won a little earlier.
"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. But if we would have played more aggressively we would have won a bit earlier I felt," he said.
He also lauded the bowlers for their performance, especially in the middle overs when the ball turning helped the spinners.
"As we know, even in the previous game when we played over here, the wicket is a bit slow. It is spinner-friendly, of course, and the way they have been bowling consistently over a period of time, I think the amalgamation of all three bowlers (Axar, Kuldeep and Jadeja) mixing up quite - with also the experience that they possess. I think that brings a lot of clarity in their bowling," he added.
Iyer said that it is always great to win a game and he felt that initially during his knock, he was struggling to manoeuvre the ball in the gaps.
"I think Abrar (Ahmed) bowled brilliantly. It was important and crucial for me to play out that spell and rotate the strike at the same time. I took some time, and then once my eyes were set, I thought that sweep and reverse sweep would have been a great option to put them on the back foot. And I think that worked pretty well for me. And from there on, it was important to build the partnership till the end. And yeah, quite imperative in the middle to take the team through and I think we played pretty well in those fields," he added.
Shreyas said that the recent run of fine scores on his return to the ODI set-up is a "blessing". In five ODIs this year, Iyer has scored 252 runs at an average of 50.40 and a strike rate of over 109 with three fifties and best score of 78.
Speaking about playing sweeps and reverse sweeps, he said, "It is not easy. For me, at least, this is from my point of view. But rotating the strike is going to be important going forward from here on. Because that puts a decent amount of pressure on the bowlers. They keep changing their line and lengths and yeah, once you keep taking singles, you get loose deliveries here and there. So yeah, once you charge on or take on the loose deliveries and hit them for four or six, I think the bowlers are more under pressure and you can keep ticking the scoreboard from there on," he added.
Coming to the match between India and Pakistan, Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first. Pakistan was off to a fine start, with Babar Azam (23 in 26 balls, with five fours) unleashing some fine drives in the 41-run opening partnership. After two quick wickets, Pakistan was 47/2.
Skipper Mohammed Rizwan (46 in 77 balls, with three fours) and Saud Shakeel (62 in 76 balls, with five fours) had a 104-run partnership, but they ate up a lot of deliveries. After the end of this partnership, Khushdil Shah (38 in 39 balls, with two sixes) did put up a fight with Salman Agha (19) and Naseem Shah (14), but they were bundled out for 241 runs in 49.4 overs.
Chasing 242 runs, India lost skipper Rohit Sharma (20 in 15 balls, with three fours and a six) early. Then 69-run stand between Gill (46 in 52 balls, with seven fours) and Virat Kohli and a 114-run stand between Virat and Iyer (56 in 67 balls, with five fours and a six) helped India secure an easy four-wicket win with six wickets and 45 balls to spare.