‘158 wasn’t the perfect total’: Shreyas Iyer reflects on nine-wicket defeat against England | Cricket News
India captain Shreyas Iyer admitted his side fell short in all departments after England clinched the five-match T20I series with a commanding nine-wicket victory in the fourth T20I at the County Ground in Bristol.Despite scoring an unbeaten 80 off 49 balls, Iyer said his personal performance meant little as India slipped to another heavy defeat, conceding the series with one match still to play.“Again, it was a disappointing one. Definitely, 158 wasn’t the perfect total on the board. And eventually we saw how quickly they chased down,” Iyer said after the match.India posted 158/7 after recovering from an early top-order collapse, but England overhauled the target in just 13.5 overs thanks to an unbeaten partnership between Harry Brook and Phil Salt.Reflecting on India’s bowling effort, Iyer revealed the team’s plans but admitted the bowlers failed to execute consistently.“When we came on to bowling, I just asked our bowlers to repeat the lengths as much as possible because top of middle-stump and leg-stump, it was very difficult to hit and score boundaries off that. So I think we fell a bit short in terms of our execution. We saw that when we were changing the pace, when we were trying something else, they scored off those loose balls,” he explained. While Iyer’s fighting knock was one of the few positives for India, the skipper insisted individual milestones hold little value without a victory.“Definitely happy with my performance, but if it’s not in the winning cause, it just goes to the side. I’m disappointed because whenever I play, I want to perform and see to it that my team wins. But unfortunately, today wasn’t that day. Definitely look forward to the next game,” he said.
England crush India by 9 Wickets
England sealed the five-match T20I series with a commanding nine-wicket victory over India in the fourth match at the County Ground, Bristol, taking an unassailable 3-0 lead. After opting to bat, India recovered from an early collapse thanks to captain Shreyas Iyer’s unbeaten 80 off 49 balls, which helped them post 158/7. However, the total proved insufficient as Harry Brook smashed an unbeaten 79 and Phil Salt remained unbeaten on 59, sharing a dominant century partnership to chase down the target in just 13.5 overs. The win marked England’s first-ever bilateral T20I series triumph over India in a series of two or more matches, while India suffered their second consecutive bilateral T20I series defeat.
