Punjab Kings head coach Ricky Ponting was disappointed with his team’s batting effort against Royal Challengers Bengaluru as he felt that the strip was far better than the 157 it managed during the seven-wicket defeat in an IPL game on Sunday. Virat Kohli anchored the chase with an unbeaten 73 while Devdutt Padikkal contributed 61 as RCB won with seven balls to spare.
“I think the wicket was a whole lot better than 157. We had a lot of batsmen make starts, not go on and make those big scores, and that’s crucial in T20 cricket, especially guys at the top of the order. And that’s the difference,” Ponting said at post-match press conference after his team’s last game at the venue.
Ponting urged his team to take a leaf out of Kohli’s book and learn how he capitalised on a good start.
“Virat bats through tonight, sees his team home, and we weren’t good enough to capitalise on a good start. I think at the end of the power play we were 62 for 1, pretty much where you’d want the game to be.
“So straight away there you’re looking at a score of 180 plus, even pushing on to 200 if your middle order bat well, but we lost wickets in clumps again tonight, which is not first time in a tournament,” Ponting seemed a bit concerned.
Ponting lauded RCB spinners Suyash Sharma and Krunal Pandya and also felt that Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood were brilliant between overs 17 to 20.
“I thought their spinners bowled well, and their death bowling was exceptional at the end. Bhuvi and Hazelwood, the four overs that they bowled at the end, we still thought we could get to near 180, but their death bowling was too good and we struggled to 157.
“Unlike the last game here, where we dragged a win from nowhere, we weren’t good enough to do that tonight.”
We had four different strips in four games
Ponting feels that there was no uniform nature of the strip at Mullanpur and the variety meant that the team needed to adjust each time it played a home game.
“One thing we know about it, it doesn’t offer a lot of pace and it doesn’t offer a lot of bounce, and we talk about that. And to be honest, the four games we’ve played here, each wicket’s been slightly different, so it just takes you a little bit of time to adjust.” Punjab Kings now have a six-day break and Ponting would like to go back to the drawing board before the team plays Kolkata Knight Riders next.
“We’ve got a nice little break, we’ve got about a six day break now, which on the back of I think three games in about five days,” the legend said.
“The boys need that little bit of a freshen up, time to get away, forget about this result and make sure we focus on our next challenge, which is KKR down there, which we know will be a big game for us.”
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