With a sparkling unbeaten half-century, Quinton de Kock helped the Delhi Daredevils chase down the 112-run target given by the Kings XI Punjab at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium on Friday.

Chasing the sub-par score the hosts got off to a slow start as the young openers – de Kock and Shreyas Iyer looked to negotiate the KXIP attack. With Iyer departing with just nine on the board, DD were 28 for one at the end of the powerplay. Speaking about the period which yielded so few runs, the South African batsman said “We found it tough with the new ball actually for once in India. Normally the new ball is quite nice to bat with in the first few overs.”

Asked if low totals can be challenging he replied, “Low totals seem to mind boggle sometimes but I think we were confident enough to play our natural game. I think we were always going to chase it down; it was just a matter of when.” And they did so without too many hiccups. With Sanju Samson, de Kock stitched a 91-run stand for the second wicket to guide the team to a comprehensive win. “We kept it fairly simple. We shared a joke and we said can we take this to the end and we did our best.”

While he took the team to their target, de Kock gleaned runs of the bowlers effortlessly. He milked the spinners with ease. Although he survived a chance early on in the innings, de Kock then slammed Axar Patel to the fence and continued to milk him. He slammed the spinner for three boundaries in an over. Asked about his preparation for the spinners in the opposition ranks, the opener said, “I didn’t prepare. I just played the way I saw it. I have practiced quite a bit on this wicket. I knew it is a good wicket. It was just a matter of backing my skills.”

While he did the needful with the bat, de Kock had earlier affected the run-out of Murali Vijay with just eight runs on the board, this after Karun Nair had hurled in the ball from near the ropes. “To run out especially one of the top five batsman in T20 is a bit of a waste of a wicket for the batting team. So to get something like that is quite nice,” he said while talking about his work later. He then stumped Shaun Marsh off Amit Mishra to peg the Kings XI back. “Mishy bowled unbelievably well. I was struggling to pick him there once or twice, so well bowled!,” he said lauding the leg-spinner who set up the DD win with a four-for.

Asked how he practiced to keep wickets for the leg-spinners, de Kock said, “I don’t really practice my keeping. I have played with Immy (Imran Tahir) so many times, Mishy and I have played so many times. I know what to expect and what not to expect, so it is just a matter of doing it.”
Speaking about the thrilling win, he said, “We haven’t won many games as convincingly as this. So to win a game like this means a lot of us. We would like to carry the momentum forward.”