Ricky Ponting: ‘We were 20-30 runs short with the bat’

Delhi Capitals finished its innings poorly in the death overs, and it cost it the game, says head coach Ricky Ponting.

M.S. Dhoni played a crucial knock against Delhi Capitals.

Delhi Capitals paid the price for a poor finish to its innings in the death overs to go down in its contest against Chennai Super Kings, head coach Ricky Ponting has said.

The team was 118 for 2 after 15 overs, but lost four wickets for 29 runs in the final overs to get to 147 for 6.

Super Kings trotted home in the final over, but it seemed the contest had been virtually decided in the first few overs of the chase as Shane Watson provided a rapid start.

M.S. Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav played slowly during the middle phase of the innings, but Dhoni stayed till the end to what was a relatively comfortable win.

READ: IPL: All-round Chennai Super Kings rolls over Delhi Capitals

Commenting on the defeat, Ponting said, “The last five-six overs batting [cost us the game]. Maybe the last six overs batting, and the first four overs [with the ball] we just got a little carried away. But I’m not going to point the finger at anyone because we’re in this together.

We win together, and we lose together. We will see how we can get better. In a few days’ time we have another very good side in [Kolkata Knight Riders] on what I’m sure is going to be a slow pitch. So, we will learn a lot from tonight’s game and we have to make sure we play better next time.”

Ponting admitted Shikhar Dhawan was slow in his run-making, but he pointed out the opener helped set the platform for a good finish.

“It wasn’t an easy wicket for anyone to come in and strike, especially at the end of the PowerPlay. There’s a certain role we want Shikhar to play in this team, we would have liked him to score a little bit quicker today. But we were 2 for 118 after 15 overs, so he actually set the platform really well,” he said.

For Super Kings, Dhoni was slow, too. “M. S. [Dhoni] has played a similar brand of T20 cricket for a number of years. He wants to be there when the last ball is bowled. He wants to be there to hit the winning runs.

That’s how he sees his role in their side. To be that man who gets the job done for them. Tonight, at some stage we felt the way he was playing was allowing us back into the game. But they win, he’s not out,” Ponting said.

In its next contest, Capitals takes on Knight Riders on Saturday, March 30, 2019.