IPL 2020: Mumbai Indians Not Thinking About The Playoffs- Quinton de Kock
Oct 17, 2020 at 1:49 PM
Quinton De Kock said that his side Mumbai Indians is not thinking about playoffs and is just taking one game at a time after Mumbai Indians registered a comfortable 8 wicket victory against Kolkata Knight Riders.
The wicket-keeper batsman scored an unbeaten 78 as Rohit Sharma led Mumbai Indians went atop the points table with 12 points from 8 matches.
Quinton De Kock: Mumbai Indians Didn’t Plan Too Much And Is Taking One Game At A Time
Mumbai Indians beat KKR for the second time in IPL 2020 after KKR could only score 148/5 after being in a spot of bother at 61/5 before Eoin Morgan and Pat Cummins revived KKR with an unbeaten 87 run partnership to take KKR to a respectable 148/5.
In reply, MI easily achieved the target losing only 2 wickets with as many as 19 balls to spare after Quinton De Kock himself scored an unbeaten 78 to guide MI home. Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav were dismissed but Quinton De Kock and Hardik Pandya saw MI home by staying unbeaten.
“We did not plan much before this game, we know what are our strengths, it is a matter of doing what we have been doing, in our team we have a lot of experience and it is a matter of just doing the things on the field,” said de Kock during the post-match press conference.
“The preparations for playoffs have not started yet, it is about taking one game at a time, whatever happens, we have to keep it simple and we need to play to our strengths. Whether we qualify for the playoffs or not, that is not in our hands but playing good cricket is something we can control,” he added.
Before the match, Dinesh Karthik quit as KKR skipper and handed over the captaincy to Eoin Morgan. However, KKR failed in batting as half of the side was back to the pavilion with only 61 runs on board in 11 overs after which Pat Cummins who scored his first half-century in T20, and skipper Eoin Morgan added 87 runs for the 6th wicket and both remained unbeaten to give KKR a respectable score of 148/5 at Abu Dhabi.
Quinton De Kock: Mumbai Indians Backed Talented Rahul Chahar Who Backs Himself
Rahul Chahar was the standout bowler for Mumbai Indians with 2 wickets conceding only 18 runs in his quota of 4 overs. Except for pacers Trent Boult and Nathan Counter Nile no MI bowler conceded 6 runs per over as they bowled accurately and restricted the top order of KKR who managed to score only 61 runs losing 5 wickets in 11 overs.
The last 2 overs in KKR’s innings by Trent Boult and Nathan Counter Nile saw a total of 35 runs. MI achieved the target with 19 balls to spare losing only Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav’s wicket.
“I think the process is that we have backed Rahul Chahar. He backs himself too and that is a key in a player. He knows his talent and he knows if he has a bad game, he will come back stronger and we know that too. As a player, we can just back other players,” de Kock said.
“We like to play simple cricket, we have a great bunch of players, guys understand that they do not think too far ahead. To be honest, we do not really talk about the wicket, we like to assess things and rather be proactive and deal with what we have in front of ourselves,” he added.
KKR next face SunRisers Hyderabad while MI face Kings XI Punjab on the same day Sunday 18th October. Quinton De Kock brought up his 3rd fifty in IPL 2020 and has 269 runs in 8 matches. Quinton De Kock’s highest score is 78 in IPL 2020 while his career-best is 108.