Indore : Following his side's 14-run win over West Indies, Indian skipper Shreyas Iyer praised his bowlers for their execution and pointed out pacer Prince Yadav's useful cameo towards the end, which ultimately became the point of difference between the teams.
Following a 108-run partnership between Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan for the second wicket, regular wickets caused India to lose their way. However, a 13-run cameo towards the end by Prince and 11 runs scored by Arshdeep Singh helped India reach 223 runs. In the end, despite all the hitting by Shamar Springer in the final over, which conceded 22 runs including three sixes and a four, India still managed to win by 14 runs, with those runs from lower-order giving India an unexpected but extremely useful cushion.
Speaking after the match, Iyer said about the bowling, "It was wonderful, honestly. When the bowlers were up to the mark, they were pretty confident in terms of what they wanted to execute, and the clarity was very much visible when I was interacting with them. So they were decisive in their execution, and I also feel that when I was passing on the ball to them, each and every one, they were ready to take on the challenge, and that is what we want."
Iyer also hailed Abhishek and Ishan's partnership, crucial 20-odd runs from Tilak Varma and Axar Patel in the middle-order and Prince's cameo, saying, "That was a phenomenal start, what we got from Abhishek - those crucial runs in the powerplay. We know what he can offer, and then Ishan coming in and taking on the bowlers. He has been simply remarkable in the last couple of months. And then in between also, we never let West Indies take on the charge, even though we kept on losing wickets. We steadied the ship in the middle order as well. That took us to a commendable total of 223. Even Prince coming and playing that cameo at the end, those were useful runs, I felt."
Iyer also highlighted the quality within the West Indies batting, which he feels are "game changers" and how important it was to stay proactive and positive against them.
On the coming matches at Hyderabad's Uppal Stadium and Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium, he said, "Both of them are high-scoring grounds, but it is important that we stick to our process and the routines which we have been following, and also see to it that we are offensive enough in our approach and the attitude is top-notch."
On the other hand, WI skipper Shai Hope, who could score just five runs today, said that the game was of "very small margins". He feels the team could have executed with the ball better and could have conceded less boundaries.
"Little things that you pick up can be defining moments, whether you get off your line. Winning team as opposed to losing one. So, probably with the ball, could have executed a little bit better, maybe used the surface a bit more, and a few runs we probably let through on the boundaries.