‘We could have easily won both our first games’ – Ricky Ponting on Delhi Capitals’ performance in IPL 2024

Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting believes they could have easily won both of their first two matches in the ongoing Indian Premier League 2024. While Delhi lost the opener against Punjab Kings by four wickets, they lost their second match of the season against Rajasthan Royals by 12 runs.

Delhi hasn’t ticked the right boxes with the bat and they certainly need to come up with a collective batting show. Delhi’s top and middle order hasn’t got enough runs and they will need to turn the tables.

The Capitals will have their work cut out as they run into an optimistic Chennai Super Kings, who have won both of their matches, on Sunday.

“We had a couple of chats about our cricket and the consensus out of those meetings is that we have played some really good and bad cricket. So, we need to find somewhere in the middle where we can play consistently good cricket over 40 overs,” Ponting said on Saturday in his pre-match press meet, as quoted by Times of India.

“We could have easily won both our first games, with Ishant going down in the first game didn’t really help and the other day we went for a few more runs in the bowling innings of that match. However, we are very confident that we’re going to be able to turn things around against a good CSK team, but it’s just a matter of us playing our best cricket for 40 overs,” he added.

The former Australian skipper expressed that his team will adopt a more confident approach when they face the defending champions.

“It’s not a short tournament, it’s quite a long tournament, but by saying that, you would prefer to get off to a good start than get off to a slow start. We have still got 12 games to play.”

“I’m pretty sure we’ll have a more positive intent going into this game, we’ll be a lot more aggressive in this game than we’ve been in the first couple of games, and I think if we take the right attitude into this game then we can definitely win.”

Delhi will play at their adopted home ground of Vishakhapatnam and Ponting wants the team to make the most of the conditions.

“This is our second home for this tournament, this is not a neutral venue by any chance. We have got our first two games here and we want to make sure that this is a place that we can win,” Ponting concluded.