Dubai:Ā Delhi Capitals (DC) captain Shreyas Iyer said that while winning the Indian Premier League (IPL) title would have been a step up for them, reaching the final for the first time in the tournament history is a great achievement.It’s been a great journey. I’m very proud of my boys. It’s not a small feat to reach the final. It was a great achievement. Winning the IPL is something more — one step ahead. We’ll come back stronger and see to it that we win the trophy, said Iyer in the post-match presentation ceremony. I would just like to tell fans that you’ve been great support through the season.
Iyer reiterated that head coach Ricky Ponting was the best he has worked with. I’ve mentioned it heaps of times, Ricky is probably the best I’ve worked with. The amount of freedom he gives is amazing. I love being beside him. He’s a confident coach, I really respect him a lot. The way he’s been conducting meetings and motivating guys has been great, he said.
DC were dominant in the first half of the league stage, but went on a run of four consecutive defeats in the latter matches. The defeat in the final was the fourth time they lost to MI this season.
On his part, coach Ponting said, ‘MI have been the best team, they’ve beaten us 4 times. Being coach it’s a little frustrating in the dugout but at the end of the day I’m really proud of the job the boys have done. Iyer is a brilliant player, captain and person. He’s definitely grown in stature in the last 12 months. Hopefully we can work together a bit more in the future. We probably had 3.5 weeks of prep before the tournament, so we had a little too much preparation. We had a really challenging tour, I was sceptical about leaving Australia but the organizers have done a terrific job. I think we have the youngest squad in the tournament and I’m extremely proud of them.’