Synopsis: Quinton de Kock orchestrated a coup, after the match seemed to play out like a carbon copy of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s fixture against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Delhi, though, pulled things back with tight bowling at the death, which made a difference. (Fixtures | Squads) De Kock’s coup Quinton de Kock’s match-winning abilities are well-established, but there are times when the South African youngster passes off almost incognito, a man weary of the world. He was in the middle of such a slump last year when they toured India. But two hundreds in the ODI series rekindled his form, which he carried on against the touring Englishmen, whom he punished with another brace of centuries. He has looked in that sort of destructive mood in the T20 World Cup and later in the IPL as well, but couldn’t make as huge an impact as he would have envisaged. But he chose to blossom against the side that possesses the strongest batting line-up in the league and on a ground that has witnessed, and has been appreciative of, monumental batting achievements. PHOTOS: Match recap in pictures It indeed was a monumental effort, though batting achievements in T20 are sometimes not given its full due. De Kock’s effort implores to be appreciated. True, the surface was as friendly as it could get in the subcontinent. The ground is not the biggest and the outfield is lightening fast. And he didn’t to have make those runs against a set of high-quality T20 bowling unit. But nothing takes the sheen off his effort. He was remarkably nonplussed throughout his 51-ball knock. He didn’t resort to anything banal or ugly — it was mostly orthodox cricketing shots that fetched him runs. He hardly panicked — he picked the gaps without betraying any hint of fuss, optimising on the generous supply of loose balls served up to him. Then, he wonderfully managed the scoreboard pressure-no matter how placid the surface is or how lame the bowlers are, 192 is a heady ask for any side. Only six times have scores higher than this been chased down in the IPL. But he batted with effortlessness of a batsman anchoring a sub-150 target. The maturity with which he pulled it off — after they had lost Shreyas Iyer and Sanju Samson — was exceptional, given the context. As was his strokeplay. He, though, found an unlikely ally in Karun Nair, who is not exactly known for aggressive batting. Karun too performed his role to perfection, and in the process demonstrated his potential in this format. READ: Who said what about Daredevil's win Carbon copy The script in the first 10 overs bore eerie resemblance with Royal Challengers Bangalore’s opening fixture against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Both times, Chris Gayle perished fast, this time in the very first over. But AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli careened on as though nothing undue had occurred. They aren’t to be slackened by an early setback. De Villiers rounded off the first over with a brace of boundaries, prefacing the fury that was to unfold. It was delectable fury, though. Only one boundary was struck in the next two overs, but 14 runs were still squeezed out, throwing up a less vaunted facet of the batting — their eye for quick singles. But the last three overs of the powerplay is possibly the worst time for a bowler, for that’s when the batsmen really feel obliged to accelerate. Kohli and De Villiers did so, as they normally do, without taking any risks. That would hurt the bowlers even more, that a batsman is able to score off his good balls and without even attempting anything fanciful. Here, a seemingly rusty Mohammed Shami, on the field after a prolonged injury-break, provided them with ample boundary-scoring opportunities, erring on the shorter side. Kohli smeared successive boundaries before de Villiers creamed him over mid-wicket. Shami’s skipper Zaheer Khan gestured him to keep a fuller length. In the next over, Zaheer did adhere to a fuller length, but still leaked 15 runs. Chris Morris was then leathered for 13 runs. The last three powerplay overs, thus, yielded them 44 runs. While most batting pairs automatically reduce their pace of scoring when the field is spread out, de Villiers and Kohli still maintain a brisk tempo. Hence, they stitched together 43 runs in five overs, whittling out a boundary or six in almost every other over. It’s this faculty that distinguished them from most other batsmen of the league. The RCB skipper T20 purple patch is straight out of the realm of fantasy-his scores in the starting in chronological order from the T20 World Cup read — 79, 75, 89*, 82*, 24, 55* and 23. This he has accomplished with a mind-boggling strike rate of 142.08. Both though won’t narrate to you the context or the sheer authority of some of those knocks. In comparison, this was a knock wherein Kohli brought out the cheekier side of his batting. To go with those whippy drives and pugnacious flicks, he unfurled a reverse sweep to Amit Mishra. Later, he shimmied down to Zaheer Khan and skimmed him through point. But just when the RCB tragics were hoping for a hundred, which could have been the first in this format, he perished, fully demonstrating his angst at getting out. Tight at the death Shami’s first two overs went for 20 runs. More misery seemed in store, as Watson swatted his first ball of the third over for a six. But Shami atoned immediately, taking out Watson, who had breezed off to 33 from 19 balls, and effecting a spectacular run out of Sarfaraz Khan, who the other day had tonked Bhuvneshwar Kumar for 20 runs in an over. Morris followed this up with a tight over, giving away only four runs, before Shami returned to eject Kohli. Consequently, Bangalore managed just a boundary in the last four overs. It was more like an anti-climax, but Delhi’s bowled ought to be commended for not losing their heads. So they were not tasked, like Sunrisers, to pursue a 220-plus target.
