AHMEDABAD: Head coach Ricky Ponting admitted that a lack of experience in Punjab Kings' middle order may have played a role in their narrow defeat in the high-stakes IPL final against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, but expressed strong confidence in the team’s youthful core to achieve success in the future.
Punjab Kings' impressive IPL 2025 campaign came to a heartbreaking end on Tuesday, as they fell just six runs short of RCB’s total, with the latter finally ending an 18-year wait to claim their maiden IPL title.
Chasing a target of 191, PBKS lost wickets at regular intervals. Despite a valiant unbeaten knock of 61 off 30 balls by Shashank Singh — which included three fours and six sixes — the team ultimately ran out of steam.
“You can look at it tonight and say that perhaps a little bit of inexperience cost us,” Ponting told reporters after the match.
“Maybe a bit more experience in that middle order today might have helped us out. But what I do know is that these young players are going to win us a lot of matches going forward.”
While the pitch at the Narendra Modi Stadium remained favourable for batting, Ponting acknowledged there were phases when it slowed down slightly — but refused to use that as an excuse.
“No, I don’t think so,” he said when asked if conditions had shifted during the second innings. “There are no excuses from us — certainly none from me. In fact, Shashank said at the end of the game that he felt it was the best pitch he’d batted on all season.”
Ponting pinpointed key moments where the momentum slipped from PBKS’ grasp.
“We lost a bit of momentum at a critical time — probably in the last couple of overs of the powerplay. You could just feel it start to fade. Then again, in the four or five overs just after the powerplay, we lost momentum and, more importantly, we lost crucial wickets.”
He added: “RCB probably felt they were a little bit short with the bat in the first innings, and we were quite happy chasing 190. But as I said, I’ll make no excuses — we simply weren’t good enough on the night.”
Despite the final result, Ponting said he was proud of the team’s campaign and the progress they had made.
“I said during the first press conference I had with Shreyas [Iyer] in Mullanpur before the season began — this is a team that’s building. And what we’ve done this season is something we can definitely build on.”
