Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting did not hesitate to concede that he was embarrassed by his side’s performance in their massive 106-run loss to Kolkata Knight Riders in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match on Wednesday night.
KKR, opting to bat first, smashed 272/7 in 20 overs for the second-highest total in the history of the IPL before coming up with an equally disciplined bowling effort to skittle DC out for 166 in 17.2 overs. The massive loss have dented DC’s net run-rate and plummeted them to the penultimate ninth spot in the 10-team points table.
Ponting was hugely critical of the side’s performance in the match, especially with the ball and on the field.
“It’s pretty hard to assess right now. I mean I was almost embarrassed with our first half of the game today. To concede that many runs, we bowled 17 wides. 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 former Aussie skipper said.
“Lot of things happened in this game that were unacceptable and a lot of things we will talk as a group 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 added.
Ponting bluntly pointed out that it was the second instance when DC overshot the bowling time, while also picking the bigger concerns that the team needs to address.
“There were two (missed reviews), Sunil Narine was missed and then Shreyas Iyer was missed later on. I am not sure what happened there. Obviously, Rishabh (Pant) had not heard them. Other fielders and bowlers on the ground actually heard something on both occasions. Look at the end of the day, they are little things and there are bigger concerns for us,” Ponting said.
The Aussie also conceded KKR were relentless after the start they got, and was effusive in his praise for the 18-year-old debutant Angkrish Raghuvanshi making an impact in his first outing.
“They got off to a flying start in the powerplay. They were around 90 runs after six overs (88/1). That phase is not ideal; if that happens at the start of the game, then you are always trying to fight your way back into the game and they did not allow us to do that today. They were relentless, they kept going at us,” he said.
“I thought the youngster at No.3 played really well and that allowed Russ (Andre Russell) and all those guys to play the way they always play. And they had wickets in hand, so they can keep going hard.
“They did lots of things really well but we’ve 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,” he added.
The Rishabh Pant-led outfit will next take on fellow strugglers Mumbai Indians on Sunday at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.