Delhi Capitals coach Ricky Ponting conceded that chasing is an area of concern for his team and it needs to hit the “reset” button to seal an IPL playoff spot in the remaining two league games after enduring a third straight loss, this time to Sunrisers Hyderabad, on Tuesday.
“It’s been a concern. When we decide to bowl first, we’ve given away big totals. We have to get better at that, we need to be better at bowling first and at chasing totals because so far, it hasn’t worked for us,” said Ponting during the post-match press conference.
Do a reset
“We had a rough idea from the start of the game on how many points one might need to qualify. We got to seven wins quite quickly, and now lost three in a row. We have to reset right now,” Ponting said.
“We play MI next and RCB in the last match and if we keep playing the way we are, we will find it hard to win those games. So we have to change things and change them quickly,” said Ponting.
“We’ve got some work to do on our all-round game. Out-fielding has been a bit sloppy and our batsmen have struggled to find any sort of rhythm.”
Chasing a big target, DC had promoted Marcus Stoinis and Shimron Hetmyer up the order ahead of skipper Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant.
Rationale
“Chasing 220, with Rahane and Shikhar at the top, we thought if we lost an early wicket, we would have to match them (SRH) in the PowerPlay and get to 65 or 70,” the former Australian captain said.
“Stoinis has been in sensational form so far, he was dying for an opportunity at the top-order. It didn’t come off today but it was all circumstantial because we were chasing such a big total. It was a bit of experimentation.”
