Ricky Ponting.
Credit: iplt20.com (BCCI)
New York: Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting hailed Rohit Sharma's "outstanding" captaincy in India's six-run win over Pakistan in the T20 World Cup here and praised him for the manner in which he backed his bowlers while defending a small total.
Bowled out for 119 with an over to spare after being asked to bat first, the Indians, led by Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya, stopped Pakistan at 113 for seven in 20 overs with Rohit rotating his bowers brilliantly.
"Rohit Sharma is a very experienced captain, isn't he? And, I just saw him then and said, 'mate, your captaincy today was outstanding'," Ponting said in a video posted by the ICC on Instagram.
"I don't think he could have done much more. You think about a lot of the bowlers that he's got in his team. He's actually had those bowlers in the IPL as well, not only for India. So, he understands them, knows when he can use them. But, it's one thing for the captain to set a plan, the bowlers are going to go ahead and execute it, and Hardik was outstanding," said Ponting.
Pakistan seemed to have the game in the bag needing 48 runs off as many balls with eight wickets in hand. However, the pace combination of the ever-effective Bumrah (3/14) and Hardik (2/24) brought India back from the dead with incisive spells that saw Pakistan lose wickets in a heap.
"I thought he (Pandya) did a really good job with the ball as well, and then, you break it down, and this has been a wicket that the seamers have liked," Ponting said.
He added, "But, their spinners bowled four overs for 20 as well, and (Axar) Patel picked up a big wicket. Yeah, the wicket was definitely different in the second innings. You can see Pakistan got the ball to hold up through natural variation, and it was just a little bit tacky. But, when the sun came out, the wicket dried out quite quickly, and then, you have to adapt and adjust on the run. I thought he (Pandya) did that really well."
It was India's lowest successful T20I total defence.