IPL 2021: Ricky Ponting admits Delhi Capitals made ‘mistakes’ in death overs vs Rajasthan Royals

The Delhi Capitals vs Rajasthan Royals IPL 2021 match at the Wankhede stadium was peculiar. Both sides suffered top-order collapses. Both recovered. Rishabh Pant was the star for Delhi Capitals with 51. Rajasthan Royals were staring at a second consecutive defeat at 42/5. However, David Miller blasted 62 and Chris Morris lived up to his Rs 16.25 crore price tag with 36 off 18 balls. However, Rajasthan Royals benefited by some mistakes made by Delhi Capitals in the death overs. 

Perplexingly, Ravichandran Ashwin did not bowl his full quota. In his three overs, he went for just 14 runs and did not concede a boundary. In the 13^th over, Marcus Stoinis gave away 15 runs. That misjudgment, in addition to the increasing dew, swung the match in Rajasthan Royals’ favour and Morris finished it off in style. 

Speaking in the post-match press conference, Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting said there were mistakes made in executing the death overs plans. “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. 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,’ Ponting said. 

The Ashwin mistake and dew

Ashwin is considered one of the best bowlers to left-handed batsmen. His records in Tests are an indication. Of the top 10 batsmen he has dismissed, nine are left-handers. Ashwin, had he not taken Miller’s wicket, could have at least kept him quiet. With Miller often struggling against spin, Pant made a big mistake.

However, that decision could have been made looking at the dew factor. Pant admitted in the post-match interview that dew was heavy. Even Ponting stated that the dew factor took them by surprise. “The other thing you have got to factor in is just how wet and dewy the ball was in the second innings of the game. It wasn’t easy for the bowlers to grip. You could see it at the end there. There were a few full tosses that fast bowlers bowled with the ball slipping out of their hand a little bit,” Ponting said. 

The Delhi Capitals head coach also said that the bowlers were guilty of bowling too many hittable deliveries. For 35 overs, no six was hit. Towards the end, seven sixes were hit. This suggested that Delhi Capitals bowlers missed their lengths regularly. 

“We probably gave him (Morris) a few too many easy balls, a few too many slot balls if you like. 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,” Ponting said.