In a low-scoring thriller at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium on Thursday, Rajasthan Royals pipped Delhi Capitals by three wickets.
Rishabh Pant’s Delhi were all over Rajasthan by reducing them to 42 for 5 at one stage but brilliant batting performances by South Africans stars David Miller and Chris Morris helped Royals pull off a heist.
In the post-match press conference Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting has pointed out a ‘mistake’ which DC made while defending the 148-run target.
Experienced off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin bowled three overs on the trot in his first and only spell, giving away just 14 runs. He did not concede a single boundary and maintained the status quo of the havoc wrecked by pacers Chris Woakes, Kagiso Rabada and Avesh Khan.
92 off 54 balls were needed when Ashwin completed his third and final over. Rahul Tewatia had just arrived in the middle.
David Miller went berserk soon after and Chris Morris later, finished off the match in style to hand Sanju Samson’s team their first win of the season.
“That’s certainly something that we will talk about when I get a chance to sit down with the team.
“He had bowled beautifully. Three overs, none for 14. Hadn’t even conceded a boundary. Look he had a disappointing game in game one, but he has worked really hard in the last few days to make sure he adjusted and got things right in this game. I thought he bowled beautifully tonight. Probably a mistake on our behalf, and something we will be talking about later on,” Ricky Ponting said.
Ricky Ponting also stated that Delhi bowled at lengths which were easy to pick for Chris Morris, who slammed 4 sixes in his 18-ball 36 not out. The former Australia captain said that plans against the hard-hitting all-rounder were not executed properly.
“We probably gave him a few too many easy balls, a few too many slot balls if you like,” Ponting said. “The length wasn’t quite where it needed to be. If you look at the replay of the game, if you bowled a reasonable yorker, he didn’t score off them. If it was back of a length, sort of, above stump high, he didn’t get hold of them either, especially with pace on the ball. We talked about how to bowl to him, but the execution probably wasn’t there.”
