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Shreyas delighted with first victory as Punjab Kings captain

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17 hoursCricket

New Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer was delighted to start his tenure with a victory over Gujarat Titans on Tuesday.

Punjab broke the record for the most expensive buy in IPL auction history when they spent 26.75 crore on Shreyas in November, though that was beaten just minutes later when the Lucknow Super Giants swooped for Rishabh Pant.

He began paying that fee back immediately on his Kings debut, recording an unbeaten score of 97 in their 11-run win.

He brought up his first 50 runs for PBKS off just 27 balls, while his next 47 came off 15.

"I'm ecstatic, to be honest. Getting 97 in the first match is always the icing on the cake. No better feeling to be honest," he said after the match.

"It was important for me to go ahead and adapt. I got four off the first ball, and that gave me an immense boost. That flicked six off [Kagiso] Rabada, I think the momentum changed... There was some extra bounce as well. I think we adapted quickly.

"You see the 44 runs Shashank [Singh] scored off 16 or 17 balls... with the dew coming in, we knew the scenario would be changing. Thankfully, we were able to execute.

"I think Arshdeep [Singh] also played an important role. He said the ball is reversing a bit; the saliva is helping. Before the season started, we left no stone unturned. Everyone chips in with their mindset. There's everyone participating and showing interest."

Arshdeep took two wickets for 36 runs in four overs during the match and let loose on the plan of attack that had been hatched by team-mate Vyshak Vijay Kumar.

"The thought was simple and very clear, make them hit to the off side," he said.

"It won't be easy to hit there. If they hit a good shot, clap, say well played, and execute another one.

"Really happy for him, he's putting in the hard yards at practice, and was executing yorkers really well, and the results showed in the game as well.

"The plan was, if you are going to miss, miss on the wider side and not on the stumps. It does slip a bit with dew around but the plan was just bowl as wide as possible, even if it slips, it's a full-toss, it won't be easy for them to hit, because it's very far from their reach.

Losing captain Shubman Gil, meanwhile, was left to rue being on the wrong side of a match that created the sixth-highest aggregate run score in IPL history, with Gujarat having fallen 12 short in their chase of 244.

They needed 75 to win off the final 36 balls with eight wickets in hand, but could only make 10 runs across the 15th and 17th overs, also only registering seven in a tight 16th.

"I think those three overs in the middle," he said when asked where the turning point was.

"I think those six overs where we scored around 30 to 40 runs cost us the game. Apart from that, many positives for us today, a good start to the tournament, I'd say.

"We got our chances when we were bowling as well and when we were batting as well. Too many runs we conceded at the back end of the innings. But I think we also let ourselves down in our fielding.

"A few catches here and there and a few misfields. When you are chasing 240-250, it's always going to be tough [if you drop catches]."