IPL 2019 | Ricky Ponting blasts groundsmen for Feroz Shah Kotla pitch
Ricky Ponting made his displeasure on the nature of pitch at the Feroz Shah Kotla public after Delhi Capitals' defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday. The head coach said that the groundsmen had assured them the best pitch but it turned out to be completely opposite to the claims.
Delhi Capitals were put into bat by Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The pitch turned out to be slower than expected and the DC batsmen failed to capitalise during the powerplay overs as they lost both the openers Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan for 11 and 12 respectively. Scoring became even more difficult after the powerplay and the batsmen dragged themselves to a score of 129. Head coach Ricky Ponting was unhappy with the nature of the wicket and put the blame on the groundsmen for dishing out a pitch contrasting to their claims.
"I think it is fair to say that the wicket surprised us a lot. Talking to the groundsmen before the match, we thought this would be the best pitch that we had by far but it was the worst. You saw how little it bounced and how slow it was," said Ponting, reported PTI.
The Sunrisers had the ace Afghan spin duo of Mohammed Nabi and Rashid Khan who scalped three wickets and only gave away 39 runs in their combined eight overs. But the Australian great did not mention any names, not even the three spinners in his team’s rank, Axar Patel, Sandeep Lamichhane and Rahul Tewatia.
"Look, at the end of the day, it is the same pitch for both the teams; but if you would have asked me, would I have wanted to play Sunrisers on that type of pitch? I mean, there couldn't have been a different wicket where you would have wanted to play Sunrisers on," the 44-year-old sarcastically answered, with a smirk on his face.
DC have bowlers like Kagiso Rabada and Ishant Sharma who focus more on line and length, whereas the Orange Army possesses the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Siddharth Kaul who rely more on slower deliveries. Ponting claimed that the pitch suited the other team more than theirs.
"It (Pitch) absolutely suited their game. They have great spinners and all their seamers just bowled slower balls. And on that wicket, when you bowl slower balls, it is near impossible to hit," he explained.
The former Australia captain also hinted at changes in the playing XI for the upcoming home games. DC features other fast bowlers like Trent Boult, Avesh Khan and the relatively unknown Bandaru Ayyappa.
"But if the wicket is going to remain like this, then we have to think about our selection in our team as well.
The Delhi based franchise
"It is not the end of the world by any stretch of imagination. We have a good mix of experience with Shikhar and Morris. Even Rishabh (Pant) and Shreyas (Iyer) have played four to six editions of the IPL, so they are not inexperienced," he said.
Last but not
"This is our home ground and we need to play these conditions better than the opposition. In two of the three games, our opposition has played better than us, so we definitely have to improve there. We will leave no stones unturned to make sure we are well prepared for the next game," he signed off.
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