New Zealand’s Jeetan Patel had Quinton de Kock four times in last four outings. However, the wicket-keeper batsman wasn’t anxious facing him again during the Wellington Test.
There have been occasions in past where a particular bowler has got the better of a batsman many a times, take example of Harbhajan Singh – Ricky Ponting, Zaheer Khan – Graeme Smith and not to forget James Anderson – Sachin Tendulkar.
During Day 2 of the Wellington Test, Kane Williamson handed Jeetan Patel the ball nine deliveries after de Kock arrived at the crease, and surprisingly the left-handed batsman got on top of him in the end. The wicket-keeper batsman said he has faced many off-spinners before so he wasn’t nervous but added he’s happy to break the jinx and move on.
“I have played against so many off-spinners in my life. I know Jeetan is a good bowler and he has me four out of four but I knew I could still get on top of him if I just put my head down. It happened today, so it was nice to finally get one over him.”
De Kock and Temba Bavuma stitched a 160-run stand for the sixth-wicket partnership and helped South Africa revive from an early fall-out on Day 2. The Proteas were reduced to 94 for six but later ended day on 349 for nine.
Talking about his knock of 90 off 118 balls, de Kock said he went in with an attacking approach, which in his words were necessary, as the visitors were under pressure by then. He further added the pressure needed to shift and for that, he and Temba took the responsibility on their shoulders. In his knock, he racked up 10 boundaries and hit three huge sixes.
“We knew the pressure was on us. The mindset was to somehow shift the pressure onto them. I didn’t want to get bogged down, so the only way forward that I knew was to play my natural game. I was obviously a little bit more aggressive than usual, but it was something that needed to be done.”