New Delhi: Punjab Kings head coach Ricky Ponting could not be more pleased about the performance of his batting unit in the Indian Premier League thus far.
Punjab Kings are the only unbeaten team in the IPL with four wins out of five matches. They shared a point with KKR due to a washout at the Eden Gardens.
On Thursday, they chased down 196 against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede in the 17th over.
Captain Shreyas Iyer has been leading from the front and has three fifty plus scores to his name in as many innings.
Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya at the top of the order too have done a stellar job.
“The batting, I’m now starting to run out of appreciation for what we’re doing, but dear, we’re batting well,” Ponting remarked.
“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.”
Lauding the bowling unit, Ponting singled out Shashank Singh’s contributions in the middle overs.
“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.”
Punjab Kings had reached their first final in 11 years last season. In the final, they lost to RCB.
“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.”
Punjab Kings next play against Lucknow Super Giants on April 19.
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