Ponting: David Warner Came Under Tremendous Pressure As Runs Dried Up At The Other End Against RCB

Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting attributed the narrow 16-run defeat to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the Wankhede Stadium to not having a "full-strength batting complement", which saw the Rishabh Pant-led side flounder after initially promising to make good of the chase on Saturday night.

Ponting added that opener David Warner came under tremendous pressure as runs dried up at the other end, which forced him to play some shots he would never had played if runs were coming from his partners.

Chasing 190 for victory after Glenn Maxwell (55) and Dinesh Karthik (66 not out) had put RCB in a position of strength, DC's Prithvi Shaw had one of those bad outings, losing his wicket on 16. Mitchell Marsh, playing his opening game of the season for DC, wasn't quite in his elements, getting dismissed for 14 as the pressure to maintain a healthy run-rate fell on Warner.

The dismissal of West Indian Rovman Powell for a duck put more pressure on the veteran Australian batter.

"We haven't had a full-strength batting complement. Mitchell Marsh played his first game (of the IPL season) and probably didn't quite go out right to fit the tempo we needed. Rovman Powell, the other guy we fielded in the middle order there, hasn't really fought for himself so far. But we know what he is capable of. So, we do need to fix some things in the dressing room," said Ponting, analysing the defeat.

Delhi Capitals have dropped to eighth on the points table after three losses and two wins.

"What we have tended to do in the tournament as well is that when we've lost a wicket, we've lost it at a bad time and we've tended to lose 2-3 wickets on top of that. That happened against RCB as well," said the former Australia captain.

DC's other middle-order batters Lalit Yadav and Shardul Thakur too went cheaply as the chase, which was looking good at one point, suddenly went off course. And, Ponting took note of that turning point in the match.

"Halfway through the run chase, we were pretty comfortable with where we sat, and if one or two guys had stayed for 3-4 overs longer, then we would have won the game. We want the guys to make big scores and to do that... obviously if you are batting at the top-4 in T20 cricket you have the best opportunity to make big scores (which didn't happen)."

Despite Shaw not getting DC a great start on Saturday, Ponting praised the opener saying, "Prithvi has been playing exceptionally well, scoring 50s and 60s... and then David (Warner) has made two 60s in the last couple of games. Trust me, it's something that I talk a lot about (with the other players).

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"In David's defence, a lot of pressure fell on him from the other end, which forced him to do something he probably wouldn't have done if the scoring rate from the other end would have been (a) little bit better," said Ponting, adding that the team needs to show improvement in all aspects of the game from now on.