IPL 2021: Feels good to score runs again, especially in a winning cause – Quinton de Kock

Mumbai Indians opening batsman Quinton de Kock feels good to be back amongst the runs after he scored a fine knock of 70 runs off just 50 balls against Rajasthan Royals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Thursday.

Thus, the left-hander helped his team in chasing down the target of 172 runs with ease as MI won by seven wickets and nine balls to spare.

The South African batsman was struggling to get going in the tournament as he had returned with scores of 2, 3, 40, 2 and failed to provide a solid start to his team.

However, Quinton looked more confident on the Delhi pitch and he played the situation beautifully. The wicket-keeper batsman stated that it is always nice to contribute to the team’s win after he was awarded the Man of the match award.

Quinton de Kock said in the post-match virtual press conference, “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.”

Quinton added that it was easier to bat in Delhi as compared to Chennai, where he struggled to get going.

“Obviously, it 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.”

Meanwhile, MI’s batting unit had disappointed in the first five matches and this was the first time when they got past the 160-run mark in the ongoing season. De Kock added that the batting unit knows that they need to come up with a better show in the coming matches.

“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.”

“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.”