IPL 2025: Think About The Areas Where We Can Do Better, Says Ponting After PBKS Loss To RR

Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket: After Punjab Kings' winning streak in IPL 2025 ended in a 50-run defeat to Rajasthan Royals, head coach Ricky Ponting urged the side to think about the areas where they can do better for the remainder of the tournament.

At the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, RR posted a total of 205/4 in 20 overs. In reply, PBKS lost big wickets of Priyansh Arya and skipper Shreyas Iyer in the first over, making the chase an uphill task. Despite Nehal Wadhera making 62 off 41 balls, PBKS could only make 155/9 in 20 overs and lost the match by a heavy margin.

“I think it was just one of those days where we can look back at the game and just honestly say that we were outplayed. Simple as that. But I think when you have games like that, I think it's really important to look back and think, were there any surprises? Was there anything that happened that we were surprised about?

“Did the venue, did it play different than what we thought? Was our planning a little bit off? But I'll ask the question to all of you, did we learn anything here? Were there any surprises? I was a bit surprised at how the game played compared to training and practice games. Just have a little bit of think about your individual game and if there is an area that we could tighten up on a fraction. We have been so good. But I am not going to let go of a moment like this where we cannot continue to learn.

“Use tomorrow wisely and think about areas where we can do better, whether it's more training, less training, whatever it might be. When we turn up here next on the eighth, let's make sure we play a better game. Not only for the next game, but a better game than we've played in the tournament so far,” said Ponting in a video posted on PBKS’ social media accounts on Sunday.

PBKS had kept RR to 138/3 by the time 15th over had come. But from there, RR’s middle order smashed runs aplenty to take them past 200 and push the game beyond PBKS reach. They will next face off against five-time champions Chennai Super Kings on Tuesday.

Ponting also told the team in his dressing room address to think about the little things they didn’t do right in the game. “We talked about adapting and understanding our conditions, right? So, did we not adapt quick enough? Or once we adapted, did we not stick at what was working long enough?

“I reckon if, looking back, I reckon we had a lot of overs where we did things at the start of an over that worked, and then we went away from it for the last couple of balls, and inevitably, those balls went to the boundaries.

Ponting also told the team in his dressing room address to think about the little things they didn’t do right in the game. “We talked about adapting and understanding our conditions, right? So, did we not adapt quick enough? Or once we adapted, did we not stick at what was working long enough?

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Article Source: IANS