IPL 2020: We need to play our best cricket in the second half, says DC coach Ponting ahead of CSK clash

Delhi Capitals (DC) head coach Ricky Ponting has urged his side to play their best cricket in the second half of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020.

With six wins in eight matches, DC are currently placed second in the IPL 2020 points table. Defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) are the table-toppers, having clinched the same number of wins, but have a superior net run-rate.

After losing to MI on Sunday (Oct. 11), DC put their campaign back on track with a hard-fought victory over Rajasthan Royals (RR) in their previous match. Shreyas Iyer-led side defended their total of 161 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium earlier this week (Oct. 14).

Ahead of DC's match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) that is the second fixture of Saturday's doubleheader, the franchise released a video, where Ponting discussed an array of things, including Shreyas' captaincy, their bowling, and playoffs.

"I do tend to get a little bit emotional in the dugout. I think the main reason I get emotional is because I care so much about the results for this team. We put in a lot of hard work, and you know, all that planning and preparation come down to what the boys do on match day, so I do get pretty heavily involved - but last time (against RR) more so because we started the game really poorly lost a wicket off the first ball and Jinks (Ajinkya Rahane) got out soon after," Ponting said.

   The former Australian captain went on to add that he has asked his players to not take the remaining group games for granted.

"I told the boys I just want to keep them switched on for another week we have got to keep pushing hard for these next couple of games We've got CSK and then KXIP. I don't want us to get complacent and take things for granted at this stage of the tournament because things are going well.

I think when things are going well, it's time to push that little bit harder, so that's what we will be doing for the next week but right now all of us are looking forward to every challenge that comes our way, and we feel that if we play our best cricket, then we're going to be hard to beat every game," DC coach Ponting added.

Speaking about the UAE pitches, Ponting said, "The pitches have noticeably started to slow down a little bit I think even the RR game with them not managing to chase 160 on these grounds (proved that). I think what we all felt when we came here was that maybe for the first half of the tournament, chasing might've been easier because of the bit of dew and also because of the little bit of more grass on the wickets because we thought they're going to preserve the wickets a little bit for the back half of the tournament, but chasing has been hard right from the start."