Inglis at 3 was Shreyas Iyer’s call, says Ponting after win that seen Punjab Kings jump all the way to 2nd in the table.
Inglis at 3 was the call of Punjab skipper Shreyas Iyer, said head coach Ricky Ponting aftere they dispatched LSG with ease.
Inglis successfully struck Mayank Yadav for three consecutive sixes in the second over, demonstrating the effectiveness of the tactic.
PBKS hit 66 for 2 on the powerplay, which was set up by Inglis’ 30 off 14 balls. LSG lost by 37 runs after managing just 38 for 3 in those six overs in their pursuit of 237.
As PBKS reached their best total of 236 for 5 against LSG, Iyer, who hit 45 off 25 balls, and the remainder of the middle order then took off from the base that Inglis and opener Prabhsimran Singh had established.
“It was actually a move that the captain came up with,” Ponting said at his post-match press conference. “He thought on that sort of pitch, against that bowling attack, that it would be the right thing to if a wicket fell early to send Inglis in. We felt that Mayank would bowl early on. If you look at the way he bowls, he generally bowls reasonably short. And that’s one of Inglis’ great strengths, as you saw tonight. Those pull shots were pretty amazing straight away.”
“It then also allows us to have Iyer, [Nehal] Wadhera and Shashank [Singh] through the middle of the innings, which is what we thought would be crucial for us in tonight’s game as well,” Ponting said. “So, yeah, I mean, it was probably a surprise call for LSG to see him [Inglis] go out [at No. 3] and it paid off for us tonight.
“So once we got off to a [start], I think we were 70-odd at the end of the powerplay, all the momentum was going with us. You see with our batting, you know, we’ve got someone like Azmatullah [Omarza]i at No. 9. So we bat really, really deep and it allows our top order to play with a lot of freedom. And they did that tonight. And, you know, to bat first and get that sort of total was a great effort.”