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Delhi Capitals (DC) head coach Ricky Ponting felt frustrated while watching the high voltage encounter against Rajasthan Royals (RR) from his hotel room. The frustration led to some damage to remotes and water bottles during his quarantine. The former Australian skipper had to be quarantined after one of his family members tested positive for Covid-19.
"It was frustrating. I think I broke three or four remote controls and a few bottles of water might have got thrown into the walls and things like that (laughs). When you're on the side-lines, being a coach and you can't control what's happening out in the middle, that's hard enough, but when you're not actually at the ground, it can get a little more frustrating,” the 47-year-old said in a press release by the franchise.
Ponting has rejoined the DC camp after completing the five-day mandatory quarantine. He will be seen in the dugout for the clash against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Wankhede stadium, Mumbai, on April 28.
Meanwhile, DC are missing their two overseas players – Mitchell Marsh and Tim Seifert as they tested positive for the virus last week.
"There's no doubt we've had it tougher than the other teams so far. Hopefully, we throw that COVID stuff now and are on the other side. And it's probably a really good definitive cut-off point - the halfway time of the season. We can reassess and readjust and get on with, hopefully, dominating the second half of this tournament," the Australian legend added.
In Ponting’s absence from the dugout, Rishabh Pant tried to forfeit the match after the no-ball controversy in the last over of Royals’ encounter. Pant was fined 100 per cent of his match fees whereas Shardul Thakur lost 50 per cent of his fees. Also, assistant coach Pravin Amre has been banned for one match as he walked into the middle and argued with the umpire over the decision.
DC are currently placed seventh on the points table with three wins from four games. The big positive is that they have best net run rate (NRR) of +0.715 among all franchises.
"I've said it a few times this year where there's 36 or 37 overs of really good stuff, and we just let it slip for two or three overs. And, that's the difference in these games. We sort of gear ourselves to not overtrain in the first part of the season, try and build up along the way. But our performances have been win one, lose one, win one. So, we need to start getting that little bit of momentum," he added.
