'Unacceptable, embarrassing': Ponting lashes out after DC's 106-run loss to KKR

Rishabh Pant (Pic: AFP)

Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting has lashed out at his side after the "unacceptable" and "embarrassing" 106-run battering at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders.

The Capitals endured a forgettable outing on Wednesday, first conceding 272 runs in the allotted 20 overs and then getting bowled out for 166 in 17.2 overs in their IPL 2024 encounter for one of their heaviest defeats in the tournament's history.

"It's pretty hard to assess right now. I mean I was almost embarrassed with our first half of the game today," Ponting said at the post-match press conference.

"To concede that many runs...we bowled 17 wides and it took us two hours to bowl our overs as well, so we were two overs behind again, which means the guys bowling last two overs only get to bowl with four fieldsmen outside the circle."

The Capitals never looked like they were in the game be it with the ball or the bat, crumbling under the weight of the mammoth total, the second highest in the history of the IPL.

"Lot of things happened in this game that were unacceptable and a lot of things we will talk as a group tonight that we have to fix immediately to go forward in the competition. There will be some good open discussions in the changing room for sure," Ponting said.

Skipper Rishabh Pant not going for review on a couple of occasions did not help DC's cause, one of them including Player of the Match Sunil Narine, who set up the game for KKR with his 39-ball 85.

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Narine was batting on 24 when Ishant Sharma expressed confidence that the all-rounder had edged the ball, but by the time Pant had signalled to the umpire for a review, the time was up.

"I haven't had a chance to talk to Rishabh about those. I mean, obviously, Rishabh hasn't heard them, other fielders and bowlers did hear something on both occasions. But look, at the end of the day, they are little things. There are other bigger concerns for us with the way we bowled, some of the field placings we had set and just how long it's taking us to get around," said Ponting, who was more critical of the over-rate.

"We can't afford to do that, no other team is doing that. We have been two overs down two games in a row, that's more than 10 minutes down going into the last couple of overs of a bowling innings."

Ponting lavished praise on 18-year-old Raghuvanshi, who shone on his IPL batting debut.

"I thought the youngster at No.3 (Angkrish Raghuvanshi) played really well and that allowed Russ (Andre Russell) and all those guys to play the way they always play. And they had wickets in hand, so they can keep going hard. They did lots of things really well but we got to be really critical of ourselves, on our own performances, and we got to look at ways to get better for the next game," Ponting said.

(With agency inputs)