Kolkata Knight Riders star batter Venkatesh Iyer said he would take the responsibility for his side’s slowing down in the middle overs against the Rajasthan Royals after their nine wicket defeat at the Eden gardens on Thursday.

Speaking after the game Iyer said, “I would take responsibility of playing a lot of dot balls there. I should have rotated more and I think that little phase was owned by Rajasthan but I think we made a good comeback in the game but at the end of the day it did not matter.”

Rajasthan’s fielding has been electric on the night Hetmyer and Sharma took superb catches at the start of the innings to pick openers Jason Roy and Gurbaz. Iyer said, “Both of them were good shots and great catches. The way they fielded they easily saved around 20-odd runs on the field which in a T20 is unbelievable.”

“Two wickets and two new batters on the crease that wicket was not very easy to bat. So that’s when we slowed down just a little bit,” he added.

Defending a small total on the board skipper Nitish Rana took the new ball and was smashed for 26-runs by Yashavi Jaiswal when asked about it Iyer said, “We all know what Nitish is capable of with the ball in hand. He has picked up crucial wickets in his career with the left-hander on the crease off-spinner I do not think it is a wrong option.”

“Unfortunately, It did not go in our favour. Had he picked up the wicket it would have been the master-stroke anyway. These things happen on the field,” he added.

He also felt the wicket was on the slower side. “The wicket was holing just a little bit on the slower side we wanted to exploit the spin with the newer ball. If the new ball starts turning then it will be very difficult for the batter. It didn’t and we are talking post-game it did not work out.”