The Delhi Capitals may be under a psychological pressure
after getting drubbed thrice by the Mumbai Indians, but this did not stop its head
coach Ricky Ponting from warning the latter to not take his team lightly in the
final on Tuesday.

The retired Australian skipper said that that the team’s
best was yet to come.

This would be the DC’s maiden appearance in an IPL final,
while its opponent has won it a lordly four times in the past.  

The two teams have faced off thrice during the current
season with same result. MI beat DC in each of these matches fairly
comfortably: the first leg by five wickets, return leg by nine wickets and the
first qualifier by 57 runs.

“Looking back now we are happy, it’s been a good season
but we are here to win the IPL and we will give it our best shot,” Ponting
said on Monday, as quoted in a PTI news report.

“We got off to a good start but were a bit shaky
towards the end but the boys have managed to really play two very good games
out of three, and hopefully, we can play our best game in the final.

“Didn’t matter that we lost games. Each team won a
couple, lost a couple but all of our losses came in a group and it was hard to
change the momentum, but the boys did it and we find ourselves in the final and
I think our best cricket is yet to come.” He said.

“It’s not an easy thing to make it to the IPL final.
There are a lot of guys who never made one. Thankfully, I have coached one
before and I was a part of another team as captain, so I know what it’s like to
be.”

“Probably, the most important thing in big games like
this is not to try hard, it’s just another game.”

“We need to enjoy that, try to embrace the extra nerves
that come with the final. All we have is given ourselves the right to play in
the final, and now got to go and win that final.” said the cricketer, once
reckoned as one of the best in the game.

“Things will be pretty much the same. We have got
enough firepower. If Mumbai would be sitting back and thinking if there is a
team they wouldn’t like to play, it is us. It’s about us, how we turn up and
play,” he said.

“We have been long away from the best we have played
against Mumbai so far. We will try and address some of the areas that we
haven’t played against Mumbai in the past — power play batting, death bowling
are some.

“So if we rectify those things and play somewhere near
our best, then we can…”

Ponting reserved special praise for Marcus Stoinis and the
in-form Shikhar Dhawan.

“Marcus has been dying for opportunity to bat further
up the order but our team balance didn’t allow it in the first part of the
tournament. With Prithvi and Jinx (Ajinkya Rahane) both being there, it was
difficult to give Stoinis opportunity up the order,” he said.

“But every time he got the opportunity he played really
well. He is a vastly improved player than what he was 12 months ago. He was
craving for that opportunity.

“Shikhar is probably having his best season and that’s
really very good signs for us. We still didn’t have got the best out of
Rishabh, so if he happens to fire in the final and then we are capable of
making a really big score,” he added.

Playing his 13th IPL season, Dhawan has crossed
past the mark of 600 runs for the first time in his career in the format. His two
hundreds have come in the current season.