Delhi Daredevils opener Quinton de Kock, who scored the first hundred of the IPL 2016 to help his side beat the mighty Royal Challengers side in their own den said that a target like 192 was always gettable on a good batting track like the one at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. De Kock played a magnificent knock of 108 to guide his team to a memorable win on Sunday.
The talented southpaw hit the bowlers all round the park and bowlers were simply clueless against his array of strokes. He played the spinners well too and kept a calm head to steer his side home. His partnership with Karun Nair proved to be decisive as the two played sensibly and kept the scoreboard ticking all the time.
Confident of chasing 192: De Kock
“We were confident of chasing 192 because it was gettable on a batting track like this and to achieve that we focused on saving wickets till the end trying to capitalize by accelerating in last overs,” De Kock told reporters during the post-match press conference.
De Kock also said that after losing 2 wickets for 50 runs the game plan of his and Karun Nair’s was to keep the scoreboard ticking by hitting into the gaps and getting a few odd-boundaries because the track was good for batting and the outfield was very fast too.
“We (him and Karun) knew the boundaries are going to come because it is such a good batting wicket and a quick outfield. We focused on ticking the scoreboard regularly by hitting into the gaps, and we just carried out playing on like that and got away. So that is all about it,” he said.
De Kock, however, said that he wouldn’t rate this century as his best but admitted that he thoroughly enjoyed the knock as the target was close to the 200-mark. When he was asked about what was going through his team’s mind, when the dashing duo of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers were going hard at their bowlers, de Kock said that they were hoping for them to commit a mistake and get out.
The Delhi Daredevils opener said that his side was aware of the abilities of the RCB’s top four in the batting line-up and the Delhi team knew the importance of an early wicket to peg the RCB side back. Delhi bowlers bowled brilliantly at the death to restrict the RCB side to a total which didn’t look that menacing on the Chinnaswamy track.
It was a great victory for the rejuvenated Delhi side and they should thank the efforts of their wicketkeeper-batsman who scored the maiden hundred of the 9th edition of the Indian Premier League.
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