Delhi Capitals will be aiming to play their “best game” in the decider accordingly to Head Coach Ricky Ponting. Having lost all three encounters against the Mumbai Indians this season, the Delhi Capitals go into the final showdown as the underdogs, but Ponting believes his team has the ability to end the tournament on a high.
Speaking ahead of the Final, Ponting said, “I had pretty high expectations coming here (UAE). I knew we had put a really good squad of players together. We had a great start, but things got a little bit shaky towards the back-end, but the boys have managed to play two really good games out of their last three, and hopefully we can play our best game in the final.”
“Looking back, yeah it’s been a good season, but we still haven’t won anything yet – and that’s what we are here for – we are here to win the IPL, and we’ll give it our best shot,” he added.
Reflecting on the season where his team went through several ups and downs but still managed to finish second on the league table, Ponting added, “Yeah, it was a little bit frustrating because up until that point (four consecutive losses), we had played some very good cricket and we were arguably the best team in the tournament. But I think some of the boys got a little bit complacent and it was at that stage of the tournament where things were starting to get a little bit tough for everybody, but to their credit they found a way to fight back and played really well in a must-win game against RCB, and yesterday (vs SRH) was one of our best performances as well – particularly with the bat. I think our best cricket is still yet to come.”
Ponting sent fellow Australian Marcus Stoinis up the order against SRH in Qualifier 2, a move that worked for his team, and the Australian veteran believes Stoinis provided his team with a “presence in the powerplay overs”. He said, “The way our team balances worked out in the first part of the tournament with Prithvi and Jinks both being there, made it difficult to get Stoinis up the order. But everytime he (Stoinis) has been given an opportunity in the tournament, especially if he went in with 10 or 12 overs to go, he played really well. He opens in the BigBash, and I’ve seen some amazing innings from him back in Australia at the top of the order. I think he’s vastly improved in the past 12 months and we are all starting to see how good he can be with the bat and the bowl and even in the field.”
