‘We have been a highly entertaining cricket team to watch’: Ricky Ponting lauds PBKS team despite final loss to RCB

AHMEDABAD: Punjab Kings (PBKS) head coach Ricky Ponting praised the team’s efforts in the 17th edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) after his side went down to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) by 6 runs in the final clash by at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

After electing to bowl, PBKS restricted the opposition to 190/9 in 20 overs on a solid batting track, with both Arshdeep Singh and Kyle Jamieson picking up three wickets each, as per a release from Punjab Kings.

Despite the top order Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh giving the Kings a good start in the chase, the middle-order could not capitalise on the momentum, and Punjab fell short of the target by a small margin.

Despite losing the title, the Kings’ coach praised the team’s performance in the season and highlighted how the Punjab Kings were an entertaining team throughout the tournament.

“The way that we’ve been able to play our cricket, it’s been a highly entertaining team to watch, and that for a coach to be able to sit back and talk about a team that way gives me a lot of satisfaction. You can probably look at it tonight and say it was probably a little bit of inexperience in the middle order that cost us. But what I know is that we are going to have these younger guys (Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Nehal Wadhera) with us for a long, and I think they’re going to win us a lot of games going forward,” Ponting said at the post-match press conference, as quoted from a release by PBKS.

Shashank Singh played a heroic knock in the end, scoring an unbeaten 61 off 30 balls in the final, but was unable to take his side home. Ponting disagreed with the remarks that the batting track was a slow one and said that his side lost momentum in a crucial spot.

“There’s no excuse from us. Shashank at the end of the game, said he thinks that was the best wicket he has batted on for the whole season. We just lost a bit of momentum at a critical time in probably the last couple of overs of the power play, and we lost critical wickets,” Ponting said.

It was after 11 years that Punjab qualified for the playoffs and reached the IPL final. Looking into the future, Ponting said that his side will continue to grow in the coming years and will make a stronger comeback next season.

“It was only a couple of days that we were here celebrating one of our great wins for the season to get into the final, and today we probably feel that we have let one slip. But with this group being as young as it is, we will be back bigger and stronger next season,” he said.

“I think it’s always easy to make observations from the outside but I made it pretty clear when I was appointed as head coach that I wanted to make sure things were different. I wanted to make sure things were done in a certain way from the top. I wanted to make things different, I wanted to make a significant change, and I think we have managed to do that,” he signed off. (ANI)