Delhi Capitals (DC) face a perform or perish situation against Rajasthan Royals (RR) at Arun Jaitley Stadium. They have five wins from 11 games and are placed sixth on the points table. On the eve of clash against Sanju Samson's RR, DC head coach Ricky Ponting has issued a warning for their opponents.
"Our last performance against Kolkata wasn't one of our best, but we're back home now. We've won two of our three games here," the former Australian captain told the reporters as quoted by PTI.
"We know we're coming up against a very good Rajasthan side, but as we've seen in the tournament so far if we can play our best cricket for 40 overs, then I'll guarantee that we'll be hard to beat. It doesn't matter who we play or where we play them. We know that we can beat anybody."
"We are keeping an eye on things. We find ourselves in a situation where we most likely have to win our last three games to qualify. We had a slow start but really proud of what the boys have done in the last 6-7 games," he added.
Fitness update on Ishant and Warner
Ponting gave an update on star players David Warner and Ishant Sharma's fitness. While Ishant is fit for selection, there is still a question mark over Warner’s availability.
"They both trained yesterday. In fact, Ishant trained three of the last five days. He probably won't bowl today. We're pretty happy with what we've seen from him over the last couple of days with his bowling. As of now, he's fit for selection," the 49-year-old said.
"David Warner had a few days off. He also did some batting yesterday in the nets for about 20 minutes. He'll go through his final paces today. He's still yet to be fit, but from what I saw yesterday, he's a whole lot better than he was a few days ago."
Help for spinners
While it has been a high-scoring ground so far, Ponting expects it to slow down and assist spinners
"Tomorrow, we go on to a wicket that we have used. It was a wicket that was used against the Sunrisers, which was a high-scoring game. We expect this one tomorrow will probably be a little bit slower. It might just give a little bit more to the spinners," he said.
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