Former Australia captain and Delhi Capitals coach Ricky Ponting has poured praise on Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis and Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan, for their brilliant showing in this season’s IPL and especially for the way they batted in the second qualifier against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Stoinis scored a fiery 38 in the match against Sunrisers and was a prime reason for giving Delhi the flying start they were starved-off the entire season. Stating that he always wanted an opportunity to bat up in the order, Ponting said that Stoinis really utilized the opportunity given to him.
“Marcus has been dying for an opportunity to bat further up the order but our team balance didn’t allow it in the first part of the tournament. With Prithvi and Jinx (Ajinkya Rahane) both being there, it was difficult to give Stoinis opportunity up the order,” he said.
“But every time he got the opportunity he played really well. He is a vastly improved player than he was 12 months ago. He was craving for that opportunity,” added the 45-year-old.
Talking about Dhawan, Ponting said that he is probably having the best season of his IPL career and must cash it in for Delhi’s success in the finals in Dubai.
“Shikhar is probably having his best season and that’s really very good signs for us,” said Ponting.
Both these players have been the top performers for Delhi. While Stoinis has scored 352 runs and taken 12 wickets in the series so far, Dhawan is also the second-highest run-scorer with 603 runs from 16 games, just 67 runs behind KL Rahul in the race for the Orange Cap.
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