The skipper, who scored 14 runs on the day, was among other batsmen who couldn’t support enough support to in-form Shikhar Dhawan. The left-hander was in a class of his own as he created history with back-to-back centuries in the IPL but the table-toppers could only pose a 165 target in return as Dhawan took care of the scoring alone.
Iyer admitted that they fell close to 10-run short in the target and felt Tushar Deshpande had a learning day as he leaked 41 runs in his two overs on the day (including 26 runs in an over to Chris Gayle).
“I feel that we fell around 10 runs short, but we got a lot of learnings from this game. Shikhar's batting was positive. Tushar leaked runs but that happens to the best of us. I'm sure he will come back,” he said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
He reserved special praises for century-maker Dhawan for putting his team ahead of everything.
“Shikhar read the wicket well, adapted to the situation, he went hard from Ball 1, and passed the message onto the youngsters that the wicket is stopping. He acclimatised to the conditions quicker than others,” Iyer said.
The skipper added the loss is a blessing in disguise as it will make his side hungrier for more wins and exert themselves more on the field.
