IPL 2018: Shreyas Iyer creates a record on captaincy debut

The Delhi Daredevils started the IPL 11 in poor fashion. They have won just one game out of the six that they have played. The franchise needs seven wins out of the remaining eight to make it to the playoffs. Gautam Gambhir, who has helped KKR with two titles did not enjoy the same success with the Daredevils. He relinquished his role as captain and Shreyas Iyer was named as the new skipper.

Iyer looked in great touch in the current IPL and he proved it once again in their game against KKR. He scored a breathtaking 93 off just 40 deliveries to take Delhi to 219. He hit 10 sixes and just 3 fours in his impressive innings. The pressure of captaincy seemed to have got the best out of him as he played one of the most electrifying innings of the IPL.

In this process, he broke the following records:

1. Iyer becomes the first IPL captain to hit 10 sixes in an innings.

2. He has scored the most number of runs on IPL captaincy debut going past Aaron Finch’s record of 64 runs against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in 2013.

3. Iyer also joins the elite list of IPL captains who scored a half-century on captaincy debut. Adam Gilchrist, Murali Vijay and Finch are the other three.

A great night for the young batsman

When Iyer took the reigns from Gambhir, he became the fourth youngest player to become a captain in the IPL. In his first game as captain, Iyer dropped Gambhir and picked the out-of-form Vijay Shankar. Munro and Prithvi Shaw took DD to a great start and the latter went on to score a good half-century. Iyer capitalised on the start and played the innings of his life. He struck Shivam Mavi for a total of 28 runs in the last over which included four sixes.

The Daredevils need a couple of wins under their belt to get the confidence and build up a winning momentum. It may be too big a ask for Iyer but we have seen teams bouncing back from such situations in the past and there is no reason as to why the Daredevils can’t do the same.

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