At the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday, April 3, Delhi Capitals (DC) head coach Ricky Ponting expressed his “embarrassement” with his team’s performance in the first half of their match against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
Shreyas Iyer won the toss and chose to bat first against the rampaging Knights, but the Capitals gave up 88 runs in the first six overs. Finally, after amassing 272/7 in their 20 overs, the two-time champions recorded the second-highest total in Indian Premier League (IPL) history.
Ponting emphasized the Delhi bowlers’ lack of discipline, who bowled a lot of extras after the loss. The ex-captain of Australia also discussed the team’s gradual overrate, which resulted in Rishabh Pant, the captain, receiving a 24-lakh punishment.
“Assessment is difficult at the moment. In fact, our first half of the game tonight nearly made me feel ashamed. Ponting, as cited by Cricbuzz, stated at the post-match press conference, “To concede that many runs, we bowled 17 wides and it took us two hours to bowl our overs as well, so we were two overs behind again. That means the guys bowling the last two overs get to bowl with four fielders outside the circle.”
“There were a lot of inappropriate things that happened throughout this game, and we will discuss as a group tonight what needs to be fixed right now in order for us to advance in the competition. Undoubtedly, there will be some worthwhile open debates in the locker room,” he continued.
Pant also failed to take a few reviews, which had a significant negative impact on the Capitals. Sunil Narine had an edge, and Ishant Sharma was sure in the fourth ball of the fourth over. Pant was persuaded to take the review by the dropped Indian pacer.
The wicketkeeper-batter eventually requested the review, but by that time, 15 seconds had passed. That over saw 26 runs scored, and in the 13th over, Narine was finally removed for 85 off 39 balls. When KKR captain Shreyas Iyer was batting on three later, he edged a Rasikh Salam ball, but Pant indicated he didn’t hear anything and chose not to request a review. Ponting, though, stated that his team’s greater worry was the slow over-rate offense and wished not to read too much into this.
“I’ve not had the opportunity to discuss those with Rishabh. Other fielders and bowlers did hear something on both occasions, so it’s evident that Rishabh hasn’t heard them. But see, these are really little issues in the end. We’re more concerned with how we bowled, some of the field positions we set, and how long it’s taking us to move around, according to Ponting.
Since no other team is doing it, we cannot afford to do it. Two games in a row, we have been two overs down; coming into the final few overs of a bowling innings, we are more than ten minutes down. Since they would have received 250 anyhow, it probably didn’t cost us anything today, he said, but if we can’t correct it, it will undoubtedly cost us something later in the competition.
After that initial encounter, they continued to pursue us with a relentless attitude. Ricky Ponting
After Delhi’s explosive start in the powerplay, Ponting observed that the KKR prevented them from getting back into the game. In his first IPL innings, rookie cricketer Angkrish Raghuvanshi hit 54 runs off 27 balls. The great player remarked that this performance helped Andre Russell, who scored 41 off 19 balls, come out firing.
“The beginning didn’t help. Considering the game’s opening ball, even. They were perhaps 90 at the end of the first six overs, having gotten off to a fast start in the powerplay. Thus, it is not the best phase. When that occurs at the beginning of a game, you always have to fight your way back in. Today, they prohibited us from doing that. After that initial setback, they remained unrelenting in their approach,” said Ponting.
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Andre Russell and the other guys were able to play the way they always play because of the excellent play of the rookie player at No. 3, Ankritish Raghuvanshi. They may continue to push hard because they have wickets in hand. They performed admirably in many areas, but we also needed to examine how we could improve for the next game and be quite critical of our own performances,” he continued.
In an attempt to chase the unlikely 273 runs, the Capitals were dismissed for 166 in the first eighteen overs. To narrow the margin of defeat, Pant and Tristan Stubbs each scored fifty runs. After this victory, KKR surged to the top of the points standings. At No. 9, DC is positioned just above the Mumbai Indians.
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