Shreyas Iyer continued to prove why he is such an important component of the Indian ODI team as he smashed a quality 79 against New Zealand on a Dubai wicket where the Kiwis folded to 205 all out and India found themselves in trouble early doors at 30/3.
Shreyas Iyer continued his rich vein of form in the ongoing Champions Trophy as he played a crucial and mature knock of 79 runs when India found themselves in trouble against New Zealand in Dubai on Sunday, March 2. India found themselves 30/3 after losing the toss before Iyer and Axar Patel rescued the team’s innings with a 98-run stand. Hardik Pandya provided the finishing touches to take India to 249/9, which eventually proved to be enough on a slow and low wicket with Varun Chakravarthy taking a fifer.
Iyer, in particular, played out the tough period early on, curbed his natural instinct of taking on the bowlers and after soaking in the pressure, played his shots to take India beyond 200. Iyer didn’t complete his century as William O’Rourke kept peppering him with short stuff and eventually got the success but the IPL and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy-winning skipper became the leading run-getter for India in the ongoing Champions Trophy.
Iyer (150) is just one run ahead of the World No 1 ODI batter Shubman Gill, who had a rare failure on Tuesday and also went past the great Sachin Tendulkar‘s second-best tally in one edition of the Champions Trophy. Tendulkar had 149 runs to his name in the inaugural edition of the Champions Trophy, the Knockout Trophy as it was called then. Iyer needs just 22 more runs to go past Tendulkar’s best tally of 171 in a single CT edition.
Iyer during his 79-run knock also went past Kapil Dev’s tally of 669 runs in ICC ODI events, which the legendary captain achieved in 24 innings. The Indian No 4 has 680 runs to his name in just 14 innings in ODI World Cup and Champions Trophy combined.
With India set to play at least one more match against Australia in the semi-finals, Iyer will hope to get a few more runs for his side and continue to the form and potentially in a final-qualifying cause.
