Mumbai Indians had a solid day on the field against Rajasthan Royals. The defending champions picked up their third win of the season and are fourth in the table. Restricting Rajasthan Royals to 171, the five-time champions were able to get to the mark in just 18.3 overs and with seven wickets in hand.
Quinton de Kock starred with the bat for MI and went on to play a match-winning innings. He finished on 70 not out after facing 50 deliveries. This innings, for which he was adjudged as the Man of the Match, brought his poor run of form in IPL 2021 to an end.
Speaking to the media at a virtual press conference, the southpaw seemed contented with his efforts and suggested that it was an excellent all-round effort. “It feels good to score some runs again, especially in a winning cause. Get the team over the line.
Obviously, the hub of everyone around me – Surya (Suryakumar Yadav), Rohit (Sharma) at the start, the two KPs (Krunal Pandya and Kieron Pollard) towards the end, it was a big help. Good all-round batting effort. So yeah, proud of the guys,” said De Kock.
The South African wicket-keeper batsman also admitted that the conditions in Delhi were more favourable to the batsmen than the wicket in Chennai. “Obviously, was a little bit easier to bat out here. But it was nice to get the job done. Was quite pleasant, and we are just happy to win the match against Rajasthan,” he observed.
Mumbai Indians’ batting unit has faltered in recent games. They have suffered from middle-order woes which has resulted crushing defeats. Quinton De Kock revealed that the group acknowledged the need to step up as a collective unit.
“We spoke about it; as a batting unit we know we have to step it up now. We know it’s important for our batting line-up to start scoring big runs and start helping out our bowlers, so glad we got over the line.”
He further elaborated that the team was focusing on having one of the top four batsmen take things deep and bat until the very end.
“I think just genuinely with our team, we are trying that one of our top-four batters stays till the end. We did that today, honestly, moving from Chennai to Delhi has helped a bit, so I am sure there will be a lot more fireworks from our guys to come,” de Kock concluded.
