Shreyas Iyer, the Delhi Capitals (DC) captain, has conceded that their batting line-up struggled during their IPL 2020 defeat to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Abu Dhabi as they had “no idea how to play on the wicket”.

Capitals, who had played each of their first two encounters in Dubai, were unbeaten in the tournament before facing Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium. They struggled to get going in their chase of 163 and ultimately fell short by 15 runs.

Iyer, speaking after the match, accepted that DC were outplayed in all the three departments by the David Warner-led side, while adding that the unfamiliarity of the playing conditions contributed to the result.

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“We had actually no idea how to play on this wicket because this is our first game here, and they played their last game here,” Iyer told Star Sports after the match. “So they pretty much outplayed us in all three departments.

“It [the pitch] was really surprising. In the second innings, it was two-paced. When I went in to bat, I wasn’t getting the ball well onto the bat. We thought the dew factor would play a massive role in the second innings and the ball would come [on] really well. We didn’t really execute the way we wanted to, but a lot of learning from this wicket and also the conditions. The next time we come here, we’ll be very prepared.”

#SRH win their first match of #IPL2020!

What a display from @SunRisers 👏 pic.twitter.com/glevZe2jdK

— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) September 29, 2020

The DC captain also pointed out that his side failed to take advantage of the large ground dimensions by taking doubles. “The ground is very big and we didn’t capitalise on taking doubles,” he said. “We knew boundaries are big here and doubles will be key for us. It didn’t work out for us. Hopefully, next time we can maximise the opportunities.”