Shreyas Iyer needed two balls, one swing and no fuss. The six over long-on completed Punjab Kings’ chase of 176 against Lucknow Super Giants with 12 deliveries unused and, tidily enough, carried him from 94 to 100. It was his maiden IPL century and it keeps PBKS mathematically – if only just – in the play-off conversation. They rise to 14 points and now sit back, hoping Mumbai Indians do them a favour by beating Rajasthan Royals on the final league night.
“I was in a great mind space. I knew what I wanted, I knew how the wicket was playing,” Iyer said at the presentation, still catching his breath but not his words. “It’s a surreal feeling, especially when you finish off the game and you score a century… I’m seriously elated.”
Those who play with him often talk about a man who rarely gives away emotion on the field. Off it, though, he can be disarmingly candid. He described Prabhsimran Singh, his partner in a 140-run third-wicket stand, as “temperamentally active” before adding, almost sheepishly, that “it takes two to tango”. The pair had wiped away early nerves – PBKS were 19 for 2 – and turned a potentially awkward chase into a comfortable stroll.
Ricky Ponting, the franchise’s head coach and long-time admirer, was quick to underline the significance of what he had just watched. “Well, there was a reason I spent as much money at the auction as I did on him a couple of years ago,” Ponting said, recalling the INR 26.75 crore the Kings shelled out. “Look, he’s a ripping guy. He’s a very mature player now, he’s a very mature leader… the respect he has from his players is almost second to none.”
Ponting added: “I’m delighted to work with him. I’m really happy on the season he’s had. It’s great to see him back in that Indian one-day team, and I really think there’s a bigger, a brighter future for him and the Indian T20 team as well.”
The respect mentioned above was evident before a ball had been bowled. Iyer cancelled all team meetings on match-day, told the group to “play freely”, and left it at that. After six successive defeats had followed six successive wins, the simpler message seemed to land.
Yet the evening was not without its concerns. Arshdeep Singh, who has had to juggle a T20 World Cup and a full IPL, looked down on pace again. “He looks ‘tired’,” Ambati Rayudu observed on television duty. Mark Boucher, working as a consultant with PBKS, agreed in his own way: the left-armer, he felt, is “trying too hard” with the new ball. Three boundaries in his first over underlined the point.
Whether those issues matter in the short term depends on other teams now. PBKS have done what they could: 14 points, a healthy net run-rate, and an in-form captain finishing the league phase with 379 runs at a strike-rate touching 150. If this turns out to be the final match of their campaign, Iyer has at least rounded off a two-year stint with something that will sit proudly in his scrapbook.
For the moment, the mood in the camp is a curious mix of relief, hope and realism. “All the batsmen, they dream of that,” Iyer said of a match-winning hundred. Punjab dream, too – but their fate lies 1,200 kilometres away in Wankhede.
