Head coach Ricky Ponting conceded that Punjab Kings lacked little bit of expertise in the center order whereas batting second in a high-intensity IPL closing in opposition to Royal Challengers Bengaluru but backed the group’s young gamers to come back good in future.
PBKS’ spectacular run in the IPL got here to an finish with a six-run defeat to RCB in the ultimate, with the latter ending their 18-year lengthy wait to win the IPL trophy in Ahmedabad on Tuesday (June 3, 2025).
Chasing 191, PBKS saved shedding wickets in their chase and regardless of Shashank Singh’s (30-ball 61 not out) late onslaught, which included three fours and 6 sixes, they fell brief.
“You can look at it [the team] tonight and say was it probably a little bit of inexperience that cost us. Maybe, a little bit of experience in that middle order today might have helped us out,” Ponting advised the media after the match.
“But what I know is that they’re going to win us a lot of games going forward.” While the wicket right here on the Narendra Modi Stadium remained conducive for batting, it was a little bit slower in sure phases of the sport.
Ponting, nonetheless, refused to provide any “excuse”.
“No, I don’t think so,” he mentioned when requested if the pitch modified in the second half. “There are no excuses from us, no excuses from me, in fact, Shashank at the end of the game said [he thought] that’s the best wicket he has batted on for the whole season,” he mentioned.
“We just lost a bit of momentum at a critical time, probably the last couple of overs of the powerplay, you could feel that momentum just started to go away a little bit, and then [again] probably [in] the four or five overs outside the powerplay, we just lost momentum [and] we lost critical wickets, “They [RCB] in all probability felt they have been a little bit brief with the bat in the primary innings, and we have been fairly completely satisfied to have the ability to chase 190. But as I mentioned, I’ll make no excuses, we simply weren’t adequate,” Ponting added.
Ponting said he would look back at the campaign with satisfaction.
“I mentioned in the primary press convention I had with Shreyas (Iyer) in Mullanpur earlier than the season began… it was about changing into a daring, dynamic and totally different group,” he said.
“On the again of what Prabh [Prabhsimran Singh] and Priyansh [Arya] and [Nehal] Wadhera and these kind of guys have been in a position to do, there’s in all probability sufficient being mentioned by means of the media over the past couple of months.
“The way that we’ve been able to play our cricket, it’s been a highly entertaining team to watch. For a coach to be able to sit back and talk about a team that way, [it] gives me a lot of satisfaction,” he mentioned.
Ponting mentioned he emphasised on his batters to play with freedom and never fear about getting out over the course of the season.
“One thing I’ve told this group is (that it is) always (about) taking the game forward, always seeing the positive result in the way that we go about it (and) not thinking about the negative result that might happen if you get out.
“One factor as a batsman in this sport [is that] you possibly can’t be apprehensive about getting out. If you are apprehensive about getting out, you possibly can’t play the sport properly.” The former Australia skipper, however, rued the fact that PBKS did not have their preferred choice in South Africa’s Marco Jansen available for the last two matches while Australia’s Josh Hazlewood was available for RCB.
South Africa and Australia are set to face-off in the final of the World Test Championship at Lord’s from June 11 and the Proteas players were instructed to leave by May 26 for the contest to be played at Lord’s.
“It’s humorous how these issues work out, is not it? That to have him [Hazlewood] accessible just about for the entire season, and we have got a couple of men that we might have beloved to have had round for a large closing like this and we weren’t in a position to have that occur,” he said, adding that Hazlewood in particular troubled Punjab batters throughout this season.
Ponting said Punjab Kings will bounce back bigger and stronger next season.
“It was solely a couple of days [ago] that we have been right here celebrating one in every of our nice wins of the season to get into the ultimate, and in the present day we in all probability really feel that we have let one slip. But with this group being as young as it’s, we’ll be again larger and stronger subsequent season,” he mentioned.
Published – June 04, 2025 11:00 am IST
