In match number 16 of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL 2019), Delhi Capitals’ (DC) batsman struggled to survive while taking on Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). The sluggish nature of the Feroz Shah Kotla has drawn flak which subsequently saw Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting referring the surface as ‘worst’. DC vs SRH game had kept both the teams on toes at the fag end of second innings.
Ponting also expressed concern as a coach and laid sole focus on the selection procedure to tackle such circumstances. However, Capitals’ bowlers have had bowled exceedingly well.
In between, some of the deliveries kept quite low apart from the batters finding it quite difficult to time the ball.
IPL 2019: Ponting wants his wards to adapt to the home conditions at the earliest:
Also, former Australian skipper reiterated Capitals need to focus on the combination and play as per situations demand. He believes their opponents have fared well in terms of acclimatising the conditions.
“This is our home ground. We need to learn how to play these conditions better than the opposition. In two of the three games so far, the opposition has played the conditions better than us,” Cricbuzz quoted Ponting as saying.
Evidently, the pitch started off behaving differently during the very first over when young opener Prithvi Shaw was at the striker’s end.
“You saw how little it bounced and how slow it was. I think it’s fair to say that that wicket surprised us a lot,” Ponting stated.
Meanwhile, the pacers bowled well- disguised knuckle deliveries to already struggling batsmen.
Firstly, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and then Siddarth Kaul alongside Sandeep Sharma kept things tight for SRH. Besides, two Afghanistan prodigies Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan, who share three wickets between them.
Meanwhile, Nabi has managed to dismiss local lad Shikhar Dhawan and wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant respectively.
In his quota of four overs, he conceded 21 runs which saw 18 runs coming off in three overs during a powerplay.
IPL 2019: Ricky Ponting didn’t shy away from calling Feroz Shah Kotla ‘worst’ –
In addition, irked Ponting has termed the wicket ‘worst’.
“By far and away, it was the worst,” Ponting said.
Earlier, after having a chat with the groundsman, Ponting revealed he was told that the strip could turn out best amongst three but it didn’t meet the expectations as put forth by the curator.
“Talking to the groundsman before the game, he expected that to be our best pitch out of the three wickets so far,” Ponting added.
For Delhi, Shreyas Iyer had shown some resistance as rest of the batters failed to rise to the occasion. Colin Ingram again falters with Dhawan almost gifting his wicket.
However, Hyderabad were off to a flier by scoring 64 in 6.5 overs.
Jonny Bairstow led from the front to slam 28-ball 48. David Warner faced 18 deliveries for his 10 runs.
In between, Capitals’ bowlers bowled remarkably well to put pressure right back onto the visitors. Rahul Tewatia bowled quite well with Kagiso Rabada and Chris Morris hitting the deck hard.
Following hiccups, while losing the fifth wicket at the score 111 in 16 overs, SRH overhauled the target in 18.3 overs with Mohammad Nabi 17* (9) hitting the winning runs. On the other side, Yusuf Pathan remained not out on nine runs.
On April 7, Delhi will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). So far they have won their two games which came against Mumbai Indians (MI) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).