Ricky Ponting, the head coach of Delhi Capitals, expressed strong dissatisfaction and disappointment following his team’s crushing 106-run defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL 2024. The Capitals had a dismal performance, conceding a massive 272 runs and then collapsing to 166 all out in just 17.2 overs.Explore Ricky Ponting’s frustration as he criticizes Delhi Capitals for conceding excessive runs.
Ponting described the performance as “unacceptable” and “embarrassing,” particularly highlighting the bowling display. He said, “It’s pretty hard to assess right now. I mean I was almost embarrassed with our first half of the game today.” Ponting also criticized the excessive wides bowled by his team, which disrupted the rhythm and contributed to the slow over-rate.
He added, “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, which means the guys bowling last two overs only get to bowl with four fieldsmen outside the circle.”
The skipper, Rishabh Pant, also faced criticism for not going for reviews on certain occasions, which could have potentially changed the course of the game. Ponting said, “I haven’t had a chance to talk to Rishabh about those. I mean, obviously, Rishabh hasn’t heard them, other fielders and bowlers did hear something on both occasions. But look, at the end of the day, they are little things.”
Ponting emphasized the need for improvement in various aspects, including bowling, field placements, and over-rate. He said, “Lot of things happened in this game that were unacceptable and a lot of things we will talk as a group tonight that we have to fix immediately to go forward in the competition. There will be some good open discussions in the changing room for sure.”
He was more critical of the over-rate, stating, “We can’t afford to do that, no other team is doing that. We have been two overs down two games in a row, that’s more than 10 minutes down going into the last couple of overs of a bowling innings.”
Despite the defeat, Ponting praised the young talent in the team, particularly 18-year-old Raghuvanshi, who made his IPL debut and performed well. He said, “I thought the youngster at No.3 played really well and that allowed Russ and all those guys to play the way they always play. And they had wickets in hand, so they can keep going hard.”
Ponting emphasized the need for introspection and improvement before their next game, urging the team to be critical of their performances and strive for better results. He said, “They did lots of things really well but we got to be really critical of ourselves, on our own performances, and we got to look at ways to get better for the next game.”
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