Delhi Capitals are going through a difficult phase in the Indian Premier League 2023 with 5 losses in their first 5 wins, but head coach Ricky Ponting is keeping the spirits of the players up in the dressing room with his motivational speeches.
After their latest loss, to the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy stadium, Ricky Ponting gave another strongly-worded speech in the DC dressing room, and also singled out Kuldeep Yadav, whose tourament has been topsy-turvy so far.
Kuldeep Yadav has bowled 17 overs actoss 5 matches, picking up 4 wickets at a good economy of 7.64. His best of the tournament came against RCB at the Chinnaswamy where he returned with brilliant figures of 2/23, wickets of Maxwell and Karthik.
It was before this game, against the Mumbai Indians, that Kuldeep returned with 0/23 in only 2 overs as MI batters hit him for runs.
Now, in a video uploaded by the Delhi Capitals on their social media handle, the head coach revealed that after the loss to MI and his poor performance, Kuldeep Yadav had said Sorry to Ricky Ponting.
The Australian was happy to see Kuldeep bounce back. In the video, though, he brought up this incident and in stern words told Kuldeep to never apologize for mistakes done on the field.
“Good, really good bowling performance. They challenged us early; they got off to a flier. Our attitude and commitment came back, we dragged it back. Kuldeep, where are you mate? Disappointed last game, weren’t you? You actually said sorry to me at the end of the game. So mate, don’t you ever say sorry to me or anyone for what happens on the cricket field. What I want you to do is bounce back strong and today with 2/23 off four, it was an outstanding spell of bowling. Well done,” Ricky Ponting said in the dressing room.
Watch: Ricky Ponting addressed Kuldeep Yadav in dressing room
Back each other, play hard and believe in the process 🙌
📽| Our Head Coach Ricky Ponting and Director of Cricket Sourav Ganguly had some inspirational words for the boys after #RCBvDC 💪#YehHaiNayiDilli #IPL2023 @RickyPonting @SGanguly99 pic.twitter.com/GV0ZNyFXOP
— Delhi Capitals (@DelhiCapitals) April 16, 2023
The DC coach was also impressed with the bowling performance of Lalit Yadav, who had figures of 1/29 in 4 overs including the big wicket of half-centurion Virat Kohli.
“Lalit, I thought you did a good job with the ball as well buddy. Two sixes in that one over otherwise the reason we bought you in today was to bowl those hard overs in the Powerplay, just outside it, and you did a great job as well. Axar you were also great. 1/25 off three and our golden boy Mitchell Marsh, who picks up 2/18 of his couple overs as well. So well done,” said Ponting.
Mitchell Marsh also raised the bar with his brilliant bowling performance of 2/18 in 2 overs, his wickets being those of Faf du Plessis and Mahipal Lomror.
Delhi’s next match is against KKR, in Delhi.
