IPL 2020: Ricky Ponting Livid, Says Delhi Capitals Bowlers 'Fed Mumbai Indians Batsmen What They Wanted'

Delhi Capitals returned to their losing ways at a crucial stage of the Indian Premier League 2020. In the first qualifier on Thursday, Delhi Capitals lost by 57 runs as Mumbai Indians stormed into the IPL final in Dubai on November 10. (HIGHLIGHTS OF MI Vs DC) 

Like most rookie captains, Shreyas Iyer didn't want to criticise his Delhi players but head coach Ricky Ponting, who knows a few things about winning matches, said Delhi played rank bad cricket against Mumbai Indians after winning an important toss and deciding to field first. (SCORECARD)  

The 57-run defeat may look big but had Delhi Capitals bowlers not leaked 78 runs in the last five bowlers and didn't suffer a horrible batting collapse -- DC were 0 for the loss of three wickets and lost half of the side for 41 -- the result could have been different.

Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting lamented that his bowlers were "miles off in the death overs" and they will have to "dig deep" as a team to make the IPL final. 

Delhi will get another shot at making the title clash in Qualifier 2 on Sunday. They will meet the winners of Friday's eliminator between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad. (Preview) 

"It was mainly the execution through our first few overs, the first over went for 15-16, so you are on the back foot pretty much straight away there. We did fight our way back into the game.

"We crawled our way back, from the sort of 7-14 (overs) were in our favour, they were only about 120/4, so we were hoping for 170 total, which might have been in our ballpark," Ponting said at the post-match press conference.

MEETING NOT EXECUTION

Ponting had wanted Delhi to hit the "reset" button after four straight defeats in the second half of the league stage. DC recovered with a win against Royal Challengers Bangalore to finish No. 2 in the standings. (POINTS TABLE)

"...Our execution in the last four to five overs was miles off where we needed it to be," said Ponting.

Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya smashed 60 runs off 23 balls as Mumbai Indians raced to 200/5. Photo: BCCI

"We continuously fed Hardik Pandya where he wants the ball, even Ishan Kishan kept getting away from us and he has played well in all the games we have played against MI, so far in this season.

"We felt that we had planned very well. Our meetings have been as clear and as concise as it has been throughout the tournament but under pressure our execution today was miles off," Ponting lamented.

The Aussie head coach said that the way Delhi Capitals managed the bowlers was right and it was again the execution that let them down.

"We have seen tonight with Hardik’s little cameo, we can see how the game can change if you don’t get it right or if you expose someone that hasn’t got the appropriate skill to bowl in the death overs.

"So, look the way we managed the overs was right, just the execution let us down," he added.

QUICK FIX?

Ricky Ponting conceded that Mumbai Indians outplayed them.

"If you look at the dismissals, Prithvi (Shaw) looked like got a good ball. Ajinkya (Rahane) also got one that swung back nicely and the execution of (Jasprit) Bumrah’s yorker to Shikhar (Dhawan) was absolutely first-class.

Jasprit Bumrah finished four wickets for 14 runs and that broke the back of the Delhi Capitals batting. Photo: BCCI

"They executed better than us, as simple as that, right through the game with all aspects of the game, they were better than us and they outplayed us. Three wins they had over us so far in the tournament,” he said.

According to Ponting, as a group, they need to find ways to get better.

"We have a couple of days before our next challenge and we will wait and see who our opponents are going to be. As a group, we have got to dig really deep and try and find ways to get better in a short period of time,” the former World Cup-winning Australian captain said.

 (With PTI inputs) 

IPL 2020