IPL 2024: “I was almost embarrassed with our first half of the game today” – Ricky Ponting

Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting admitted he was almost embarrassed with his team’s bowling performance against Kolkata Knight Riders at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam on Wednesday. DC conceded 272 runs after Shreyas Iyer decided to bat first, which is now the second-highest score in the IPL history after SRH’s 277.

DC bowlers were taken to the cleaners by KKR opener Sunil Narine as the visitors posted 88 runs in the field restrictions. Narine took Ishant Sharma for 26 runs in the fourth over as the lanky pacer failed to bowl according to the set field.

Narine completed his fifty off just 21 balls and went on to score his highest score in the IPL – 85 off just 39 balls with the help of seven fours and as many sixes. Furthermore, Angkrish Raghuvanshi smashed 54 off just 27 balls and thus impressed on his IPL debut. Moreover, Andre Russell (41 off 19) and Rinku Singh (26 off 8) added the finishing touches.

Delhi Capitals bowlers could not execute their plans and failed to bowl in the right areas, which led to their downfall. All the DC bowlers conceded their runs at a run rate of more than nine. DC conceded 15 wides in their bowling innings and they had to bowl the last two overs with only four players outside the 30-yard circle because of slow over-rate penalty.

“It’s pretty hard to assess right now. I mean I was almost embarrassed with our first half of the game today,” said Ponting 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, which means the guys bowling last two overs only get to bowl with four fieldsmen outside the circle.

“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.”

Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant was late to ask for the review when Sunil Narine was only on 24. On replays, it was shown that there was a clear edge and similarly Shreyas Iyer was given a second life when he was on 3. However, Ponting is more concerned about the way his bowlers bowled and their slow over-rate.

“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. There are other bigger concerns for us with the way we bowled, some of the field placings we had set and just how long it’s taking us to get around,” said Ponting, who was more critical of the over-rate.

“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. It probably didn’t cost us today because they’d have gotten 250 anyway but going forward in the tournament, it will definitely cost us something if we can’t fix it.”

Delhi Capitals will next take on Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Sunday.