Iyer 'speechless' after another middle order collapse

• Scorecard

'With the way we were going, we came to run-a-ball and to lose from there, really disappointing. We didn't play smart cricket.'

A gutted Delhi Capitals captain Shreyas Iyer said that he was "speechless" after his team lost seven wickets for eight runs in their 14-run defeat to Kings XI Punjab in an IPL encounter in Mohali on Monday.

Chasing 167 for victory, DC were nicely placed at 144 for 3 in the 17th over, until a collapse saw them subsequently being bowled out for 152 in 19.2 overs.

"I am really speechless. It is a crucial match and losing such matches is not going to benefit us," Iyer said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

"Really disappointing. With the way we were going, we came to run-a-ball and to lose from there, really disappointing. We didn't play smart cricket and Punjab outplayed us in all the departments. They were really cool and calm in that situation. Our batsmen did not take any initiative to win the game," the skipper said.

A delighted KXIP skipper Ravichandran Ashwin said that they were waiting for Rishabh Pant to make a mistake and cash in from thereon.

"Not may times, you defend. When Rishabh hit the six, we just needed to hang in there. Credit to Shami and Curran. We were probably 25 runs short. We backed ourselves to defend with three spinners."

• Indian Premier League, 2019