Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer called Yuzvendra Chahal "one of the best bowlers" in the Indian Premier League and revealed that he told the seasoned leg-spinner to always look for wickets instead of worrying over leaking runs during a "personal chat”.
After a subdued start to the 2025 edition of the T20 tournament, the Punjab Kings spinner has found his rhythm and took the wickets of Rajat Patidar and Jitesh Sharma in Punjab Kings’s five-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru, in Bengaluru, on Friday.
"Personally, I had a chat with Chahal. I told him you are a match-winner and you need to get us wickets as much as possible. You don't need to be safe in your approach and he has got the capability of bouncing back. That's what we appreciate of him as a leggie," Iyer said.
"He is one of the best bowlers in the IPL, probably the best bowler in the IPL so far. You have to back that all the time," he said.
Punjab Kings produced a brilliant bowling effort to restrict RCB to 95 for nine in a rain-curtailed 14 overs-a-side match at the Chinnaswamy stadium.
In reply, PBKS competed the chase in 12.1 overs, with Nehal Wadhera scoring a match-winning 19-ball 33.
The Player of the Match award, however, went to RCB's Tim David, who proved to be their lone-ranger in an otherwise forgettable batting display, with a blazing 50 off 26 balls.
"As they say variety is the spice of life. We are able to experience all kinds of games over here. It is a great challenge," Iyer said.
"There was no thinking to be honest. I was making instinctive moves and obviously we were getting wickets. I didn't want the new batsman to come in and settle straightaway," the skipper said of his decisions on the field.
Asked to bat first, RCB lost wickets at regular intervals with the likes of Arshdeep Singh, Chahal, Marco Jansen and Harpreet Brar doing the bulk of the damage for the visiting team.
"Marco was able to extract little bit of bounce on this wicket. He was bowling lethal. He basically steadied the ship. And the rest of the bowlers they helped him.
"To be honest, we didn't know how the wicket was going to play and I personally feel the bowlers they adapted according to it," Iyer said.
"When I had a chat with Arshdeep, he said, the hard length balls were very difficult to hit on this wicket because I didn't see a single six off a fast bowler hit down the ground. That was the chatter going around and they were fantastic in executing it."
On expected lines, Iyer lavished praise on Wadhera for his attacking knock.
"Yes absolutely, you need one batsman to take the charge. Nehal was brilliant in his approach today. The attitude was top notch. I hope he continues the same form."
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