Punjab Kings batter Nehal Wadhera lauded head coach Ricky Ponting and skipper Shreyas Iyer for the team’s historic win against Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL 2025 match on Tuesday. Playing at Mullanpur, PBKS defended the lowest total in the history of IPL and claimed their fourth win in six games. PBKS bowled KKR for just 95 and defended the target of 112 as spinner Yuzvendra Chahal roared and scalped four wickets. After the historic win, Wadhera revealed the chat which Ponting had with the team during the innings break.
Opting to bat first, PBKS faced their worst nightmare as their batting lineup succumbed against KKR’s bowling attack. Their batters literally struggled to cross the 100-run mark and got bundled out for 111. Wadhera revealed that during the innings break, Ponting did not show any kind of disappointment towards the batters and rather motivated the bowlers to do better.
“I have never ever heard a negative word come out from his mouth. When your coach is of such a character and the way he inspires everyone Even when we got out all out for 111, he just said that, ‘Ok, today our bowlers need to get the job done. I need some really fiery spells today.’ You know, automatically when players listen to such things from our coach, the confidence automatically, just boosts up,” said Wadhera in the post-match press conference.
“I think it really showed up in the field and I think it’s all because of his pep talks and also Shreyas Iyer. The way he just charges up everyone, I think he’s one of the finest captains I’ve ever played under. He’s really great with what he does with the bat and the way he captains. The way he’s leading the team is really great,” he added.
Wadhera also stated that the team was always confident about defending the low score and also lauded Yuzvendra Chahal for his match-winning spell.
“We never were short of confidence. We knew that our bowlers were very capable of doing well here and the way Chahal, Arshdeep, Marco Jansen and (Xavier) Bartlett, playing his first game, the way they performed was really commendable. So I think all credit goes to the bowlers today. Even if the batters didn’t have a great day with the bat, I think they really compensated for it,” said Wadhera.
“You could just see from his stats today, picking up the four crucial wickets and despite the left handers being there, he got Rinku out there which was a really crucial wicket for us. I think the way he used his pace while bowling wide, slower balls and also mixing his pace. So I think this is what experience does to a bowler and he showed us all today and I think he won us the game,” he added.
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