Watch: Ponting buries his head, Kuldeep screams after DC’s dreadful fielding | Cricket

The Delhi Capitals registered a consolation win over the Punjab Kings on Wednesday night, beating Shikhar Dhawan‘s men by 15 runs in Dharamsala. For the Capitals, the win took them off from bottom to 9th in the table, but the Punjab Kings faced a significant setback in their hunt for a playoff spot. The side can now finish on a maximum of 14 points, and will need favourable results in other matches to secure a qualification in the knock-out stage.

The win against the Kings didn’t come easy for the Capitals, however. The side squandered a couple of opportunities on the field during the opening few overs of the game. The first was in the last ball of the 8th over in PBKS’ 214-run chase. Kuldeep Yadav tossed it up and Liam Livingstone went for a slog sweep only to find the bottom half of the bat. It was a simple catch at deep mid-wicket but Anrich Nortje fluffed it. Kuldeep was visibly upset and let out a loud scream.

That was just the beginning of a series missed opportunities for DC. The next one came in the 10th over when Kuldeep induced a false shot from Atharva Taide only for Yash Dhull to drop a simple catch at long-on. This time, the left-arm wrist spinner did not show much emotion and walked back to his mark hanging his head.

DC head coach Ricky Ponting, however, couldn’t help but bury his head on his hands. Dew may have been a factor as pacers bowled a significant number of full tosses as well; regardless, Ponting’s reaction became viral on social media.

VIDEO: Ricky Ponting, Kuldeep Yadav’s agonising reactions as DC drop catches, miss run-outs vs PBKS in IPL 2023

However, Khaleel Ahmed finally broke the streak as he took an important catch to dismiss the dangerous Jitesh Sharma in the 16th over of the game. As soon as Khaleel picked the catch, he pointed straight towards his dugout as Ponting, as well as other members of the side, couldn’t help suppressing a laugh.

They also missed two run-out chances when both the batters, Livingstone and Taide, were out of the crease but DC could not manage to hit the stumps on a sloppy outing. Livingstone kept the PBKS run chase going racing to a 30-ball fifty, his sixth of the tournament as he brought the equation down to 38 from last two overs from being an near impossible 79 from four overs.

However, Livingstone took the side close as he smashed Mukesh Kumar, but Anrich Nortje redeemed himself with a match-winning penultimate over of the game, as he conceded only five runs.