May 24 (Reuters) - Shreyas Iyer delivered for Punjab Kings when it mattered most, assistant coach Brad Haddin said after the captain scored his maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) century in a seven-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants to keep their hopes of reaching the playoffs alive.
Iyer's unbeaten knock of 101, featuring 11 fours and five sixes, guided his team over the finish line in their final league stage match on Saturday, with the win snapping a six-game losing streak for Punjab.
"In these matches you want your best players to stand up," Haddin said.
"These are the matches you want to play where everything is on the line. The captain for the last couple of days had that look in his eye. He wanted to be the one that made the difference and turned things around and gave us an opportunity to play in the finals.
"You'd go a long way to see a better innings and a better captain's knock than that... He's a tremendous leader of men. He reads the game well. The changing room follows him. He speaks with purpose."
Punjab, fourth in the IPL standings, had a strong start to their season and won six of their opening seven games, but their form tailed off in recent weeks.
They occupy the last qualifying spot for the playoffs, but will need other results to go their way on Sunday if they are to progress.
"We just had to find some rhythm back in our game. There's a lot of scenarios now that can play out," former Australia batter Haddin said.
"It was important, we had to win the game. We had to play this game the way we did tonight under pressure to give ourselves an opportunity." (Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Kim Coghill)
