'We should be taking every single'- Ricky Ponting on his chat with DC bowling coach seeing Rishabh Pant's tactics in last over

Delhi Capitals (DC) suffered a narrow four-wicket loss in Qualifier 1 against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). The Capitals fought till the very end but Tom Curran’s expensive 20^th tilted the game in CSK’s favor. Not pleased by the outcome, DC head coach Ricky Ponting revealed he had chat with bowling coach James Hopes when skipper Rishabh Pant refused to run singles in the last over of DC’s innings.

Pant scored an unbeaten 51 off 35 but strangely, he refused to take any single whatever off the bowling of Shardul Thakur as he was eyeing big hits. Only eight runs came off the over, and it all came down to a few more runs when MS Dhoni was required 13 off the last six balls. Curran, who then had bowled brilliantly conceded three boundaries as the CSK skipper calmly guided run-chase with two balls to spare.

Ricky Ponting was asked about skipper Pant’s tactics during the last over of DC’s innings, and he said discussions were going about it, but it was ultimately the wicketkeeper-batter’s call to make crucial decisions as the leader of the team. “We were talking about that as it happened actually (Pant refusing singles). After the first run that he didn’t take, the bowling coach James Hopes looked at me and said, ‘I think we should be taking every run that we get now.’ I said let’s wait till the end of the over and we will make a judgment on it then,” Ponting said while responding to a query by Sportskeeda.

Tom Curran was new to the crease so Rishabh Pant refused the singles: Ricky Ponting

After Shimron Hetmyer was dismissed for 37 runs, Curran came to the crease. Sensing the all-rounder was new to the crease, Pant might have thought he is better off scoring the boundaries and sixes of Thakur’s last over.

“I think Rishabh’s going to back himself more often than not. Tom Curran had only faced one or two balls since he had been at the crease. He was probably going to find it harder to find the boundaries. Rishabh is the captain and he is out there making decisions on the run. That was the decision that he made tonight,” Ponting added.

DC will get another chance of reaching the finals as they will face the winner of the eliminator between RCB and KKR on Wednesday (October 13).