IPL 2020: We were outplayed, no excuses from us, says Delhi Capitals (DC) coach Ricky Ponting
After suffering a 15-run defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad, team coach Ricky Ponting told what caused the team to lose. Ponting also denied that the pitch was lacking. He said that Sunrisers Hyderabad performed better than his team in every department.
A total of 11 matches have been played so far in the 13th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Delhi Capitals played their third match on 29 September and for the first time, the team suffered defeat. Earlier, Delhi Capitals had won both their matches. After suffering a 15-run defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad, team coach Ricky Ponting told what caused the team to lose. Ponting also denied that the pitch was lacking. Ponting said that Sunrisers Hyderabad performed better than his team in every department.
Chasing the target of 163 runs by Sunrisers Hyderabad, the Delhi Capitals team could only manage 147 runs for 7 wickets in the match on Tuesday night. Asked if the conditions made a difference in the match, Ponting insisted that Sunrisers Hyderabad implemented the strategy better than his team.
“I don’t think the conditions were that different. The grounds are bigger, there are bigger square boundaries here. (But) At the end of the day, we were just outplayed by Sunrisers Hyderabad,” Ponting said at the post-match press conference.
“We were a little bit off from our absolute best. SRH had good top-order partnerships and they rotated the strike well, and a few of them made big scores. So, that was the difference in the game,” he added.
Apart from the half-century of opener Jonny Bairstow, Rashid Khan’s superb bowling helped Sunrisers Hyderabad in opening their account by the first win against Delhi Capitals.
Regarding the Delhi Capitals top-order batsmen, Ponting said, “If you have one of those batsman that go on and make a big score, like if one of those guys goes on and gets a 60 or 70 plus score, then we probably win the game.
“When we look back now, we were only 15 runs away at the end of the game. So, you can break that down in any way that you want.”
“At the Delhi Capitals, we don’t sit back and blame any one person, we lost the game as a team.”
No Excuses for us: Ricky Ponting
Even though captain Shreyas Iyer, who opted to field after winning the toss, said after the game that the wicket had become two-paced in the second innings, Ponting felt that the conditions were suitable when DC batted.
“Visually today, it looked like a really good wicket. A little bit of grass on it, it was nice and hard. As we saw (with) the new ball, there wasn’t a lot of bounce,” he said.
“Warner and Bairstow played the conditions really well early on. They got the boundaries when they needed to, ran the twos exceptionally well,” added Ponting.
“The wicket might have been slightly better in the second innings which is disappointing for us, having won the toss and deciding to chase.
“We felt there might be a bit of dew in the ground and having just walked the outfield now, there was dew, so no excuses from us. We were outplayed.”
