Why did PBKS skipper Shreyas Iyer said ‘We have lost the battle, but not the war’ after 8-wicket thrashing against RCB in Qualifier 1
“We have lost the battle, but not the war.”
Those were some straightforward words which came out from Punjab Kings skipper Shreyas Iyer after his team was bashed by eight wickets in the Indian Premier League 2025 Qualifier 1 match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur, Chandigarh, on Thursday.
Batting first, PBKS, which finished first on the points table first time since 2014, imploded against a potent RCB attack led by Yash Dayal and Josh Hazlewood in the Powerplay. Opener Priyansh Arya fell in just the second over before Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed the other opener, Prabhsimran Singh. Hazlewood picked two big scalps of skipper Iyer and in-form Josh Inglis. Eventually, PBKS were bundled out for just 101 in 14.1 overs before RCB romped home chasing the target with 10 overs to remain.
Even though PBKS lost the match vs RCB, the Iyer-led PBKS are still not out of the tournament. They will play the winner of the Gujarat Titans vs Mumbai Indians match in the second Qualifier.
“Not a day to forget, but got to go back to the drawing board. We lost a lot of wickets (in the first innings. There’s a lot to go back and study on,” said Iyer after the loss.
Iyer said he is not going to bother about his decision-making making and PBKS failed to execute the planning, which seemed to be spot on ahead of the game.
“I am not doubting my decisions to be honest. Whatever we did in terms of planning, outside of the ground whatever (planning) we did, I think it was on point. Just that we couldn’t execute it on the field,” he said.
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“Can’t even blame the bowlers, as it was a low total to defend. We’ve got to work on our batting especially on this wicket. In all the games we have played here there has been some variable bounce,” he added.
“We can’t give such reasons because we are professionals at the end of the day, and we have to bat according to the situation and we have to live up to it,” said Iyer.
