Fighting spirit lifts Ponting's Mumbai

Throughout his playing career, Ricky Ponting built a reputation around his competitive, fighting spirit; he was known as a scrapper who refused to lie down in the face of adversity.

In his first role as head coach, Ponting now appears to be passing on those traits to the Mumbai Indians.

His first season at the helm of the Indian Premier League franchise got off to a less-than-desirable start, with Mumbai losing five of their first six matches to sit at the bottom of the IPL table.

A defeat to the Delhi Daredevils, who were on an 11-match losing streak at the time, and the loss of Aaron Finch and Corey Anderson to injury were particularly heavy blows.

But a drastic turnaround in form has seen Mumbai win their last five matches, moving to fourth on the ladder with three matches remaining and putting themselves firmly in contention for the play-offs.

On Friday, they handed Chennai a rare home defeat to continue their march up the table.

Quick single: Pandya-monium as Mumbai make it five straight

“What I have loved the most about this team is that when things have gotten the toughest, someone has stood up,” Ponting told iplt20.com.

“Full credit to the players to show that kind of character when our backs were to the wall.”

Image Id: ~/media/28B00266BA424D8EA289679B8865E483Ricky Ponting before Mumbai's clash with Hyderabad // BCCI

And despite the season beginning so poorly, Ponting said he knew what the squad was capable of.

“We have worked really hard – we worked hard before the first game as well, but things didn’t quite go to plan,” Ponting said.

“We knew that if we could string a couple of wins together, we would be able to come back strong.

“It is a scary thought for me that if we turn up one day and put together 40 overs of our best cricket, it is going to take a lot to beat us.”

Ponting played down his own role in the turnaround, saying it had been a matter of adapting to situations and playing accordingly.

“It wasn’t anything about training harder or doing anything differently,” he said.

“In the first four games we actually played some reasonable cricket, but in some very important moments we didn’t just lose by a bit, but by big margins.

“To be a consistent T20 team the gap between your best cricket and worst cricket has to be really small.

“It has been a great turnaround but it has nothing to do with me; full credit to the players.”

Image Id: ~/media/0E35D1841F1447D198154122DA0292ACRicky Ponting and Harbhajan Singh // BCCI

However, Mumbai players including Harbhajan Singh have been quick to praise the influence of Ponting on the team.

Quick single: Harbhajan hails 'fantastic' Ponting

The veteran off-spinner – once fierce rivals with Ponting – said he had been impressed by the attitude of the Australian.

“He has been very positive about things whether you win or lose,” Harbhajan said after Mumbai’s win over Bangalore.

“It’s the way he played cricket throughout his career.

“He always says give your 100 per cent and that’s what the boys are looking to do.”

After the serious blow of losing Finch to a hamstring injury during their third match, Ponting said Mumbai had settled on their best opening combination in Lendl Simmons and Parthiv Patel.

The addition of Black Cap Mitchell McClenaghan has also been crucial, with the quick collecting 10 wickets in his seven matches to date to complement the good form of veterans Lasith Malinga and Harbhajan.

While Ponting expressed his pride in the way his team had turned their season around, he said it was not the time for them to rest on their laurels.

“But as big as it is, we still have three more games coming up and we need to win them to give ourselves a chance to qualify for the play-offs,” he added. “We cannot afford to get carried away.”