Coach Ponting offers ‘no excuses’ as Punjab fall to RCB in IPL 2025 final

Ricky Ponting, the head coach of PBKS and a former Australian legend, also discussed the defeat and how they were unable to reach the goal of 190. Ponting argued that the team’s lack of middle-order experience may have had an impact on their performance during the match. To win them more games in the future, he continued to support the same middle order.

After 17 years, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) were finally able to capture the illusive trophy on June 3, 2025, which was a day of joy. It was a memorable moment for the Bengaluru team, but it was heartbreaking for the Punjab Kings (PBKS), who were unable to cap off an amazing season with a victory after losing by six runs in the final chase.

Ricky Ponting declined to offer an explanation, stating that one of their top players in the last game, Shashank Singh, disagreed with the notion that the pitch in Ahmedabad grew slower in the second innings.

“After watching the team tonight, you can conclude that we were probably harmed by a small amount of inexperience. According to The Hindu, Ponting stated, “I know they’re going to win us a lot of games going forward, but maybe a little experience in that middle order today might have helped us out.”

“No, I don’t believe so,” the player said. The former Australian cricket player went on, “There are no excuses from us or from me. In fact, Shashank stated at the end of the game that he thought that was the best wicket he had batted on all season.”

At a crucial moment, we simply lost a little momentum: Ponting

Ponting, who joined PBKS as head coach this year, backed up his claim by recollecting the game’s mistakes and the factors that led to the change in momentum. The renowned cricketer claimed that many wickets fell in the middle and that the final few overs of the powerplay were likely the source of some concern.

The three-time World Cup winner stated, “We just lost a bit of momentum at a critical time, probably the last couple of overs of the powerplay, and you could feel that momentum just started to go away a little bit. Then [again] probably [in] the four or five overs outside the powerplay, we just lost momentum [and] we lost critical wickets.”

“We were quite pleased to be able to chase 190, and they [RCB] probably thought they were a little bit short with the bat in the first innings. But as I mentioned, we simply weren’t good enough,” he stated in closing.