I Still Think We Were The Best Team In The IPL 2021, Says Delhi Capitals Head Coach Ricky Ponting

Head coach Ricky Ponting has said that despite losing out on a place in the final, he thought that the Delhi Capitals were the best team in the IPL 2021. But he rued the inability to close out on key moments of his side.

The Capitals finished the league stage at the top of the points table with 10 wins in 14 games. However, they lost the Qualifier 1 to Chennai Super Kings and the Qualifier 2 to Kolkata Knight Riders and were knocked out before the final.

Ricky Ponting asserted that his team was unable to win the crucial moments in the close matches, but opined that they were the best unit in the competition.

“I said this to the boys at the end that I still think we were the best team in the tournament. As good as Chennai were, they went on to win it again. But, I think we were the best team,” Ricky Ponting told The Grade Cricketer’s YouTube channel

“We just made a couple of critical mistakes at crucial moments at the end, which is the difference between winning and losing in T20 and the difference in winning or losing tournaments. We made those mistakes.”

We had our chance against CSK and we should have won: Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting lamented the loss to CSK. With 24 needed off 11 balls, MS Dhoni’s 6-ball 18-run dash, which included three boundaries to Tom Curran in the last over, took CSK into the final. The DC head coach feels that Kagiso Rabada should have been given that last over instead of Curran.

Ricky Ponting also rued the loss to RCB in their last league game when KS Bharat smashed Avesh Khan for a last-ball six after the pacer had sent down a wide.

“We had our chance against CSK and we should have won that game. We would have gone straight into the final. It was a really disappointing way for us to end.

“(Before that) In the last round game against RCB, they needed 9 off 2 balls and then seven off the last ball. Avesh Khan bowls a leg-side wide. A high full-toss last ball, hit for six, that’s how we lost that one. Chennai needed 20-odd off the last two overs. We had Tom Curran or Rabada left to bowl the last over. We chose to bowl Tom Curran (smirks),” the Australian elaborated.

Ricky Ponting will now have to brainstorm about the players to be retained ahead of the mega-auction.

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