Delhi Capitals (DC) head coach Ricky Ponting admitted that they were "outplayed" by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in all departments at Abu Dhabi on Tuesday (September 29).
See Also: ‘Important to get our top four right’ – David Warner after SRH’s impressive win over DC
Ponting also refused to blame the pitch as his team coped a 15-run loss while chasing the target of 163. While it was Capitals’ first loss in this year’s IPL, Sunrisers recorded their maiden victory this season.
"I don't think the conditions were that different. The grounds are bigger, there are bigger square boundaries here. (But) At the end of the day, we were just outplayed by Sunrisers Hyderabad," Ponting said at the post-match press conference.
"We were a little bit off from our absolute best. SRH had good top-order partnerships and they rotated the strike well, and a few of them made big scores. So, that was the difference in the game," he added.
Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan wreaked havoc on Delhi’s batting line-up, claiming 3 wickets by conceding only 14 runs in his four overs. Pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2-25) and T Natarajan (1-25) also returned with impressive figures.
Speaking about Capitals' top-order batsmen, Ponting said, "If you have one of those batsman that go on and make a big score, like if one of those guys goes on and gets a 60 or 70 plus score, then we probably win the game.
"When we look back now, we were only 15 runs away at the end of the game. So, you can break that down in any way that you want."
"At the Delhi Capitals, we don't sit back and blame any one person, we lost the game as a team."
Ponting also dismissed DC skipper Shreyas Iyer’s claim that the wicket had become two-paced in the second innings, saying the conditions were better when Delhi batted.
"Visually today, it looked like a really good wicket. A little bit of grass on it, it was nice and hard. As we saw (with) the new ball, there wasn't a lot of bounce," he said.
"Warner and Bairstow played the conditions really well early on. They got the boundaries when they needed to, ran the twos exceptionally well," added Ponting.
"The wicket might have been slightly better in the second innings which is disappointing for us, having won the toss and deciding to chase.
"We felt there might be a bit of dew in the ground and having just walked the outfield now, there was dew, so no excuses from us. We were outplayed."
Kagiso Rabada was the stand-out bowler for Capitals, returning with the figures of 2 for 21 in his four overs and Ponting was full of praise for the South African speedster.
"He's just the ultimate competitor. He loves pitting himself against some of the best batsmen in the world. He has performed exceptionally well for the Delhi Capitals," the former Australian captain said.
He also revealed that the side had planned to target SRH spinner Abhishek Sharma but couldn't execute it.
"We were looking to target Abhishek Sharma and he just snuck away from us a little bit. Rashid Khan dismissed Shreyas Iyer, which meant that Abhishek was able to get away with bowling to a new batsman.
"We targeted his third and fourth over but didn't get as many as we needed to. The game started to slip away from that moment. They executed their yorkers better than we did."
(With PTI inputs)
