After helped Arshdeep Singh the Punjab Kings defeat the Mumbai Indians by seven wickets, head coach Ricky Ponting denied that the left-arm pacer was going through a difficult time and praised his work ethic.
On Thursday night, Arshdeep had a magnificent opening spell, dismissing Suryakumar Yadav and Ryan Rickelton before coming back in the final overs to eliminate Sherfane Rutherford.
After going wicketless in his first three IPL games, Arshdeep recovered with figures of 2/50 and 3/22 against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians, respectively.
“We talk about people setting the tone; the way Arsh set the tone in the first over, swung the ball around, and put them on the back foot was exceptional,” PTI quoted Ponting as saying during the ‘Dressing Room Diaries’ after the match on Thursday.
“Arsh, I know you’ve been going through what you consider a rough patch but the rest of us don’t think so,” the former Australia skipper said.
“The work you put in over the last couple of days to be able to do this straight away tonight was the reward. To be on the mark from the first ball, get two early wickets, and then come back at the end to do what you normally do. It’s a credit to your work,” he added.
Ponting praised the bowling team and highlighted the middle-overs contributions of Shashank Singh.
“Well done to the bowling group. The ability to claw it back was key. It felt like they might get a few more than 200, but Shanky’s (Shashank) couple of overs changed the momentum again.”
With captain Shreyas Lyer hitting a 66 off 35 balls and opener Prabhsimran Singh slamming an undefeated 80 off 39 balls, Punjab chased down a victory target of 196 in only 16.3 overs.
“The batting, I’m not starting to run out of appreciation for what we’re doing, but dear, we’re batting well,” Ponting said.
“Prabh, I need to praise you because you didn’t get a lot of strike during the Powerplay. Most of your hard work had to be done outside of it, but you were so skillful, so calm, and so calculating. You’re batting as well as I’ve ever seen you bat.”
They are now at the top of the standings with nine points, and this victory over MI was their fourth of the season. The IPL title has not yet been won by PBKS.
“We know that if we play somewhere near our best, we’re going to keep winning lots of games of cricket,” Ponting said.
“We should be proud of where we are right now, but that doesn’t mean we don’t go to bed tonight thinking about how we can get better again tomorrow.”
On April 19, the Kings will take on the Lucknow Super Giants.
