Ahmedabad, June 4 (IANS) Punjab Kings head coach Ricky Ponting praised the team efforts throughout the IPL 2025 after his side went down to Royal Challengers Bangalore by six runs in the summit clash at Narendra Modi Stadium on Tuesday night.

After electing to bowl, PBKS restricted the opposition to 190/9 in 20 overs on a solid batting track, with both Arshdeep Singh and Kyle Jamieson picking up three wickets each.

Chasing a target of 191, despite Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh proving the PBKS a good start up the top order, Punjab were restricted to 184 for 7 despite a late flourish from Shashank Singh (unbeaten 61 off 30 balls) and fell short of the target by six runs.

Despite losing the title, the head coach praised the team’s performance in the season and highlighted how PBKS were an entertaining team throughout the tournament.

“The way that we’ve been able to play our cricket, it’s been a highly entertaining team to watch, and that for a coach to be able to sit back and talk about a team that way gives me a lot of satisfaction. You can probably look at it tonight and say, ‘Was it probably a little bit of inexperience in the middle order that cost us?’

“But what I know is that we are going to have these younger guys (Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Nehal Wadhera) with us for a long time, and I think they’re going to win us a lot of games going forward,” Ponting said at the post-match press conference.

“I can’t speak highly enough for what those young boys have done through the tournament. I think I talked at the first press conference I had with Shreyas about becoming a daring, dynamic, and different team. On the back of that, what Prabh and Priyansh and [Nehal] Wadhera and these sorts of guys were able to do, there’s probably enough been said through the media over the last couple of months,” he said.

Shashank played a heroic knock in the end, scoring an unbeaten 61 off 30 balls in the final but was unable to take his side home. Ponting disagreed with the remarks that the batting track was a slow one and said that his side lost momentum in a crucial spot.

“There’s no excuse from us. Shashank, at the end of the game, said he thinks that was the best wicket he has batted on for the whole season. We just lost a bit of momentum at a critical time, in probably the last couple of overs of the power play and we lost critical wickets,” Ponting said.

It was after a span of 11 years that PBKS had qualified for the playoffs and reached the IPL final. Looking into the future, Ponting said that his side will continue to grow in the coming years and will make a stronger comeback next season.

“It was only a couple of days that we were here celebrating one of our great wins for the season to get into the final, and today we probably feel that we have let one slip. But with this group being as young as it is, we will be back bigger and stronger next season,” he said.

“I think it’s always easy to make observations from the outside, but I made it pretty clear when I was appointed as head coach that I wanted to make sure things were different. I wanted to make sure things were done in a certain way from the top. I wanted to make things different; I wanted to make a significant change, and I think we have managed to do that,” he signed off.

–IANS

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