Delhi Capitals defeated to Kolkata Knight Riders by 106 runs in Visakhapatnam, their third IPL 2024 loss.
Head coach of the Delhi Capitals (DC), Ricky Ponting, expressed his “embarrassement” with his team’s performance in the first half of their match against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Wednesday, April 3, at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.
Shreyas Iyer won the toss and chose to bat first, and the Capitals let up 88 runs in the first six overs against the onslaught Knights. In the end, the two-time winners accumulated 272/7 in their 20 overs, which was the second-highest total in Indian Premier League (IPL) history.
Following the loss, Ponting emphasized the lack of discipline displayed by the Delhi bowlers, who bowled an abundance of extras. The former captain of Australia also discussed the team’s gradual overrate, which resulted in a 24 lakh rupee punishment for captain Rishabh Pant.
It’s difficult to evaluate at the moment. We played a rather embarrassing first half of the match today, I must admit. At the post-match press conference, Ponting was quoted by cricket sport as saying, “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.” This means the guys bowling the final two overs will only get to bowl with four fieldsmen outside the circle.
“A lot of unacceptable things happened in this game, and we will discuss as a group a lot of things that we need to address right now in order to go on in the tournament. Without a doubt, there will be some worthwhile open talks in the changing room,” he continued.
Pant also failed to take a few reviews, which greatly hurt the Capitals. Ishant Sharma was sure that Sunil Narine had an edge in the fourth ball of the fourth over. The dropped Indian pacer attempted to persuade Pant to accept the review. Eventually, the wicketkeeper-batter called for a review, but by then, the allotted 15 seconds had elapsed. After scoring 26 runs in that over, Narine was ultimately removed in the 13th over for 85 off 39 balls. Later, when batting on three, KKR captain Shreyas Iyer edged a Rasikh Salam ball, but Pant indicated he didn’t hear anything and chose not to request a review. To avoid drawing too much attention to himself, Ponting stated that his team’s main worry was the sluggish over-rate offense.
“I haven’t got an opportunity to discuss things with Rishabh. It’s evident that Rishabh hasn’t heard them because on both occasions, other fielders and bowlers did hear something. However, remember that they are really little matters in the end. We have more serious worries about the manner we bowled, some of the field positions we had decided upon, and how long it is taking us to move about,” Ponting remarked.
“No other team is doing it, and we can’t afford to do it. Going into the final few overs of a bowling innings, we are more than ten minutes behind when we are two overs behind in two straight games. We probably wouldn’t have lost today because they would have received 250 anyhow, but if we can’t repair it, it will undoubtedly cost us in the future rounds of the competition,” he continued.
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The manner they continued to pursue us after that initial encounter was unrelenting: The Ricky Ponting
Ponting observed that following their explosive start in the powerplay, KKR prevented Delhi from getting back into the match. The famous player remarked that Andre Russell, who struck 41 off 19 balls, came out firing because of youthful Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s 54-run knock off 27 balls in his first IPL innings.
It was a bad start. even considering the game’s first ball. They had a great start to the powerplay, maybe reaching 90 at the conclusion of the first six overs. Thus, that stage is not the best. You are always attempting to battle your way back into the game if that occurs at the beginning of it. We were not permitted to do it today. The way they continued to pursue us after that initial setback was unrelenting, according to Ponting.
“I thought that Ankritish Raghuvanshi, the young player at No. 3, played really well, which allowed Andre Russell and the other guys to play the way they always play.” They could keep pushing since they had wickets in hand. They performed a great deal of things, but we also need to be extremely critical of our own work and consider how we can improve for the next game,” he continued.
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The Caps, chasing an unlikely 273 runs, were dismissed for 166 in the first eighteen overs. Half-centuries from Pant and Tristan Stubbs helped to narrow the loss deficit. With this victory, KKR shot up to the top of the points table. DC, meanwhile, is ranked No. 9, barely ahead of the Mumbai Indians.
