Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting admitted that his side's massive 91-run defeat to Chennai Super Kings at the DY Patil Stadium on Sunday will put a huge dent on their net run rate with the race to playoffs in IPL 2022 heating up. Chasing 208, Delhi were skittled out for just 117, crashing to their sixth loss of the current season. "Our bowling was not up to the mark, similarly our batting was very, very poor. There were not many positives to take from the match. To lose by 91 runs, it will put a huge dent in our net run rate. It means we need to bounce back really strongly in our next game," said Ponting in the post-match virtual press conference.
But Ponting insisted that Delhi can still make it to the playoffs by winning three remaining matches in the league stage. "We would think we can make the play-offs with three wins. Eight wins might be enough to get in and one big win might help our net run rate. Who knows, we can be in the final. That is what we can think of, what happened has happened and we would want to look to the future and look for a rebound from a bad performance."
On the morning of the match against Chennai, Delhi had a Covid-19 scare when a net bowler tested positive for the virus. But Ponting believes that Covid-19 scare in the camp cannot be given as an excuse for being comprehensively outplayed by Chennai. "That's not an excuse for us. It's not the first time that we've had to deal with it on game day. In one of the earlier games against Punjab Kings we had to deal with the same thing and ended up winning that game really comfortably. "At the Delhi Capitals, we are not going to make excuses and we are going to find solutions for the problems we are facing. Although it wasn't ideal preparation, we should have played better cricket. At the end of the day, we let ourselves down," he said. Ponting also gave his support to captain Rishabh Pant's decision making, saying it is easy for people from outside to judge a skipper's on-field calls.
"I fully back every decision he takes on the field. Being a T20 captain before, I know you don't have a lot of time to think about especially under extreme pressure. It is easy to make judgments from outside but trust me when you are in the middle it is not an easy thing to do." "A captain makes decisions in a very short time and the decision he takes he thinks is the best for the team at that given time of the match. He takes things like boundary size and batsmen at the crease into account when he takes those decisions." Delhi's next match in IPL 2022 will be against Rajasthan Royals at the DY Patil Stadium on Wednesday.